

Maybe my synesthesia is mild? I don’t know. Maybe this is just me, but I don’t SEE the colors (wouldn’t that be a hallucination?), I merely “feel like” those things are those colors (and they are unchanging colors, the letters and numbers and words are ALWAYS those colors, they never change). I can easily spot the “2”s of course, but they are all black.

It always bugs me when I see the number test you mentioned. Because Stroop tests are used to measure reaction time (and due to the fact that synesthesia is automatically evoked), researchers use them to see if the reactions within a person’s brain are consistent with those standard in a brain altered by synesthesia. Stroop EffectĪlso known as the Stroop test, this pertains to a kind of psychology test that researchers use to demonstrate the subject’s reaction time for a task. A synesthete will be able to assign the same characteristics very easily, as they’ve already made neural associations which are automatic and consistent. After a certain amount of time, they are given the same objects again and asked to do the same task. numbers) and is asked to assign colors, tastes, personalities, or more. This is a type of test where a person is given a set of objects (e.g. seeing colorful shapes or tasting a certain flavor).

To be able to test for auditory synesthesia, one will be asked to listen to a collection of sounds to see if he or she experiences a sensory perception that is not mundane (e.g. For example, there also exists auditory synesthesia, which occurs when a sound activates an additional sense (to hearing) for a synesthete. Since there are numerous types of synesthesia, a visual test is not the only kind of synesthesia test you will find on the internet. While a person with normal perception tends to have trouble hastily distinguishing between the 5s and the 2s, a grapheme-color synesthete may perceive 5s as one color and 2s as another, making the task a much easier one. The test, in this case, is how fast the subject is able to find all of the number 2s in the picture. The above picture depicts an example of how a synesthete experiencing grapheme-color synesthesia might perceive the numbers (right) compared to normal perception (left). While this is a rather simple synesthesia test, it does its job, providing quick, most-often definitive results. As he or she begins to scan through the letters and numbers, each has its own respective color – a bijection of sorts between grapheme and color. However, a synesthete (who associates specific colors with specific letters and/or numbers) may look at the same picture and perceive something quite different. He or she will not see anything atypical. A person without synesthesia will look at this picture and see it as it is: a picture with black letter and numbers. Visual TestsĪ common test for grapheme-color synesthesia is having the subject in question look at a picture with several black letters or numbers. Still curious? Good! There are a variety of synesthesia tests that can help you verify or nullify your personal relationship with the condition. If you have had a similar experience, though, there’s a good chance that you’re the one synesthete in every 2000 people. Have you ever tasted the richness of the color blue, or seen the brilliant orange streaks of a high C note? Do you perceive sensations with a sense that doesn’t seem to belong? Probably not. Synesthetes experience the world around us in a different way. People who experience synesthesia are nominally labeled as synesthetes. While some who experience the condition may consider it a nuisance (at times), those on the outside (looking in) often regard the condition as nothing less than phenomenal. Synesthesia is a condition of the mind in which our brain’s processing of the senses is intertwined.
