Is synesthesia a genetic disorder?
Heredity in Synesthesia
While a proven genetic basis for synesthesia remains elusive, the phenomenon tends to run in families, as ∼40% of synesthetes report a first-degree relative with the condition [3],[19].
Synesthesia isn't a disease or disorder. It won't harm your health, and it doesn't mean you're mentally ill. Some studies suggest people who have it may do better on memory and intelligence tests than those who don't.
Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (for example, hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway (such as vision). Simply put, when one sense is activated, another unrelated sense is activated at the same time.
The genetic mechanism of synesthesia has long been debated, with researchers previously claiming it was a single X-linked trait due to seemingly higher prevalence in women and no evidence of male-male transmission This is where the only synesthetic parent is male and the male child has synesthesia, meaning that the ...
No, synesthesia is not a disease. In fact, several researchers have shown that synesthetes can perform better on certain tests of memory and intelligence. Synesthetes as a group are not mentally ill. They test negative on scales that check for schizophrenia, psychosis, delusions, and other disorders.
Everyone is potentially born with synaesthesia, where colours, sounds and ideas can mix, but as we age our brains become specialised to deal with different stimuli.
Though most cases of synesthesia appear to be developmental, acquired cases have also been reported following traumatic brain injury, damage to the brain's white matter, strokes, brain tumors, posttraumatic blindness and diseases of the optic nerve in the eye.
Over the course of her 18 years at the school, about 30 students have been identified as having synesthesia, which she considers a learning disability. “Anything that has the child learning differently when you're presenting the information is a learning disability,” says Ward.
Lexical–gustatory synesthesia
It is estimated that 0.2% of the synesthesia population has this form of synesthesia, making it the rarest form.
In spite of these limitations, grapheme-color synesthesia was found to be associated with PTSD in a second larger community-based group of veterans. It is suspected that the PTSD-synesthesia association is probably not specific to combat trauma per se, but may likely be related to noncombat traumas as well.
Is synesthesia Neurotypical?
3. Synaesthesia is special: it is not on a continuum with neurotypical cognition.
The synesthetes showed increased intelligence as compared with matched non-synesthetes. This was a general effect rather than bound to a specific cognitive domain or to a specific (synesthesia-type to stimulus-material) relationship.
Research suggests that about one in 2,000 people are synesthetes, and some experts suspect that as many as one in 300 people have some variation of the condition.
The causes for the development of synaesthesia are not well understood yet. Synaesthesia may have a genetic basis resulting in enhanced cortical connectivity during development. However, in some cases synaesthesia has a sudden onset, for example, caused by posthypnotic suggestions, drug exposure, or brain injury.
Several brain regions have been shown to be pivotal for synaesthetic experience among them are sensory and motor regions as well as so-called “higher level” regions in the parietal and frontal lobe.
Relevance: Both autism and synaesthesia are examples of neurodiversity, which illustrates how our genes may change our brain structure and function and consequently our experience.
synesthesia, neuropsychological trait in which the stimulation of one sense causes the automatic experience of another sense. Synesthesia is a genetically linked trait estimated to affect from 2 to 5 percent of the general population.
People with synesthesia were found to have a general memory boost across music, word, and color stimuli (Figure 1). The researchers found that people had better memories when it related to their type of synesthesia. For example, on the vocab tests, the people who could see letters as certain colors had a better memory.
Synesthesia is a condition where one sense co-activates other senses. Okay, “condition” sounds clinical. It is instead a gift, and it has nothing to do with a disease or a mental disorder. You also do not need any medication or medical treatment.
This is in line with the high scores on sensory sensitivity questionnaires [43], and is compatible with the finding that synaesthesia occurs more frequently in autism than in the general population.
Do people with synesthesia have good memory?
In summary, synesthetes tend to display a superior and enhanced memory (encoding and recall) compared to the typical population. Depending on the type of synesthesia, differing forms of memory may be more strongly encoded (e.g. visual memory for grapheme-colour synesthetes, or auditory for colour-hearing synesthesia).
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Is synesthesia a bad thing?
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| You can have improved memory. | Synesthesia can be lonely — other people don't see the world the same way, and it can be difficult to describe. |
Children with synaesthesia showed evidence suggesting significantly higher rates of Anxiety Disorder, and also displayed a type of mood-moderation in demonstrating fewer extremes of emotion (i.e., significantly fewer negative feelings such as fear, but also significantly fewer positive feelings such as joy).
Although not specific to autism, synaesthesia seems to be quite common among autistic individuals. Quite common in autistic pople is the form of synaesthesia that produces tactile sensations without the individual being physically touched, for example, looking at something can bring a tactile experience.
Growing evidence links synaesthesia to cognitive dysfunction; dyslexia, dyscalculia and cognitive interference from synaesthetic experiences have been reported. Conversely, anecdotal and experimental evidence has linked synaesthesia to enhanced recall and absolute musical pitch.
One rather striking observation is that such synesthetes all seem to experience very different colors for the same graphemic cues. Different synesthetes may see 3 in yellow, pink or red. Such synesthetic colors are not elicited by meaning, because 2 may be orange but two is blue and 7 may be red but seven is green.
Seven is definitely blue, and nine is a dark purple, right?
In previous research the inheritance patterns of synaesthesia (eg experiencing colours from graphemes) has been studied and it was concluded that synaesthesia is most likely to be the outcome of a single gene passed on the X chromosome in a dominant fashion.
They have a rare brain condition called synesthesia in which some of the senses - usually quite distinct - involuntarily fuse together, creating almost literally a sixth sense. Music is not only heard, it's seen and felt; words can have flavors and flavors can have color.
The majority of synesthesia cases have reported visual experiences. Reports of non-visual synesthesia are rare, and until now, there have been no reports of synesthesia in people with congenital blindness. In a recent case study, researchers reported a case of a 40-year-old Italian male with a Ph.
How many people with autism have synesthesia?
People with autism were almost three times as likely to have some type of synesthesia, the researchers report online this week in Molecular Autism. Of the 164 adults with autism, 31, or 18.9%, met the criteria for synesthesia, compared with only seven (7.2%) of the 97 "typical" respondents.
Brang and Ramachandran explain that Synesthesia may have survived history simply because Synesthesia may have been just epiphenomenal. This means that the genes involved in Synesthesia may have served another purpose and simply did not have enough stamina for evolution to eliminate it from our genes.
For centuries, synesthesia was thought to be a mark of madness or genius. That's overblown. But an above-average number of artists, writers, and musicians report having these experiences.
It was found that the chance of developing schizophrenia was higher in volunteers with grapheme-coloured synaesthesia than those without it. No link was found between autism and grapheme-coloured synaesthesia. This study has helped researchers to understand how mental conditions work and interact.
Some studies propose structural differences in the brain. One study proposes that synesthetes possess a higher neural connectivity between different areas of the brain. It was also found that synesthetes show an increased grey and white matter density in certain parts of the brain.
If you're curious to see whether you could have synesthesia, Mushtaq tells mbg a neuropsychologist or neurologist can administer the Synesthesia Battery Test, which is 80 questions and takes about 20 minutes.
Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon at the edge of natural variation in sensory perception. Individuals with synaesthesia (up to approx. 4% of the population) have unusual secondary sensory experiences when presented with triggering stimuli, typically against a background of normal neural development.
The causes for the development of synaesthesia are not well understood yet. Synaesthesia may have a genetic basis resulting in enhanced cortical connectivity during development. However, in some cases synaesthesia has a sudden onset, for example, caused by posthypnotic suggestions, drug exposure, or brain injury.
The synesthetes showed increased intelligence as compared with matched non-synesthetes. This was a general effect rather than bound to a specific cognitive domain or to a specific (synesthesia-type to stimulus-material) relationship.
People with synesthesia were found to have a general memory boost across music, word, and color stimuli (Figure 1). The researchers found that people had better memories when it related to their type of synesthesia. For example, on the vocab tests, the people who could see letters as certain colors had a better memory.
Is synesthesia a trauma response?
This article summarises recent evidence that suggests that synaesthesia is one of the largest known risk factors for the development of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This important and novel finding is explained in terms of the underlying cognitive differences that are found in people with synaesthesia.
The use of psychedelic drugs can heighten and connect your sensory experiences. Mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD have been studied for their ability to induce this phenomenon. But other stimulants, like cannabis, alcohol, and even caffeine, have also been shown to cause temporary synesthesia.
| Name | Profession | |
|---|---|---|
| Kanye West | Multiple | Rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, fashion designer |
| Nikola Tesla | Sound to color | Inventor |
| Eves Karydas | Sound to color | Singer-songwriter |
| Duke Ellington | Sound to color | Composer, pianist, bandleader |