Hue-man: A New Sensory Superhero in town

Sensory Experience

Have you ever heard of a condition that allows individuals to hear colors or see letters as specific hues? Every time you hear someone’s name a colour pops in your mind. Rohan sounds blue and Lisa sounds so yellow. Sounds like a superpower to hear the colours! For some individuals, the ability to see colours in letters or hear colours in words does not stop at fun colourful books from our childhood where everything seemed possible. This phenomenon is called synaesthesia, a rare condition that affects one in every 2000 people, where the cross-wiring of the senses in the brain results in heightened sensory experiences (Carpenter, 2001). People with synaesthesia are called synesthetes.

The word synaesthesia has its origin in the Latin syn- + Greek aisthesis (together + perception/ sensation) (Goode, 2010) which means perceiving different senses together. Since we have five senses, the misconnections are possible in many ways and hence synaesthesia is manifested in various forms. There are as many as 35 types but the most common among them all is the grapheme-colour synaesthesia where one perceives colours in alphabets and/or numbers.

Cognitive benefit:

It may give children with grapheme-synaesthesia an added benefit of a better recall memory due to stronger schemas for words (Smees et al., 2019). For example, we may remember words just by their meaning but some synesthetes will remember them with colours and meanings and may recall the same word faster than rest. While synaesthesia may seem like a superpower to some, there is more than what meets the eye, quite literally!

Synaesthesia, The darker side.

Overstimulation:

The experience leads to overstimulation among the synesthetes and they have difficulties in understanding different perceptions. Moreover, this is a condition that not a lot of people are aware of.

“Harry Styles’s Matilda might bring tears for you but it brings hues of violet and silver in air for me” – Sound-to-colour synaesthesia/ Chromesthesia

Social Mockery:

Varied experiences of people have been documented in terms of feeling ridiculed, misunderstood and even mocked for ‘making up’ this very real condition (Simner & Bain, 2013). Having a parent or a sibling with a similar condition however does help in gaining the validation and acceptance of living with this added ability (van Campen, 2014). 

Cognitive Overload:

It is detected early-on in the school-going years of synesthetes. This is because we get introduced to varied amounts of new stimuli via learning new symbols, words, art, etc. Although, a downside would be higher cognitive load and problems related to overstimulation that would cause fatigue and or anxiety in synesthetes (Watson et al., 2014).

Association with Learning Disabilities:

Synaesthesia is most commonly clubbed with autism, dyslexia and attention deficit disorders (Cytowic, 1997 as cited in Wheeler, 2013). Our education system over the years has been streamlined to get most out of our cognitive skills and higher order thinking abilities in specific subjects. These systems can make it a vicious cycle for kids who may have learning disabilities along with synaesthesia.

Susceptibility to psychological disorders and emotional disturbances:

Children with synaesthesia are more susceptible to anxiety disorders than their peers. They are found to have unusual mood profiles of showing both low positive and low negative emotions (Simner et al., 2021).

“Empathy is not where I can draw the line, I can sense your pain too” – Mirror-touch synaesthesia

Why not make a Synesthetes friendly world?

By helping synesthetic children embrace their unique ability, they can utilize it to their advantage and lead fulfilling lives. If helped through their journey of self-discovery, they can learn to cope with it positively. Following are some suggestions for the same:

1. To help child synesthetes better accept their condition, parents can help them realise that it is a gift that can be used to their advantage for learning.
2. They can be introduced to clubs or other social groups that share similar experiences.
3. Educators and policy makers can play a crucial role in creating a synesthete-friendly world by spreading awareness and implementing changes such as providing experiential courses and multisensory projects in schools (Simner& Hubbard, 2013).

Schools are more focused on rationalisation of senses to use them as tools to develop cognitive skills. It is argued that schools should rather spotlight the necessary 21st-century skills such as non-esthetical, emotional, and empathetic abilities. This can be achieved through holistic learning and multisensory projects and activities (van Campen, 2014, pp. 202-203). A recent development in the field is the Digital-Colour Calculator app. It allows its users to select colours of their own choice for the digits in the calculator. This app tries to reduce the mental cost of performing tasks with synaesthesia (Berger, 2021).

Read More: 10 Skills You Need to Excel in the 21st Century, According to Psychology

What policy changes may work?

Students may be allowed to take up courses to learn about different vocational crafts such as pottery, carpentry, gardening, metal or electric work, etc. Such projects can help in stimulating different senses of visual, touch, hearing , etc other than the usual limited exposure to senses. The introduction of gamification and art-integrated approach towards learning in the classroom will also help children in a similar way. Also, allowing dual attempts and overall changing the assessment patterns to be more application oriented in nature will help in stress reduction for children with conditions such as synaesthesia.

“Isn’t math everywhere, literally? I see my sequences of colourful numerals in 3D around me!” – A mix of number-form & grapheme-colour synaesthesia

The final verdict

Synaesthesia is indeed a superpower if you claim it to be that way. With a little support from our established social structures, we can help synesthetes in enjoying their added ability. It’s time to shift our perspective and celebrate the diversity of human experiences, including the extraordinary abilities of synesthetes. Let us try and accept that it is okay for apples to sound blue to some even if they look red to most of us!