synaesthesia

Tasting colors, perhaps

Synaesthesia is a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense triggers automatic experiences in another—hearing a sound might produce a color, or seeing a letter might evoke a taste.

Those who have it are synaesthetes.

The word also describes deliberate blending of senses in art or writing: a loud shirt, a warm color, a sharp cheese.

Also spelled synesthesia.

types

chromesthesia

Sound-to-color perception

condition

congenital

Existing from birth

prevalence · diagnosis · developmental · trait · spectrum · variation · innate · idiosyncratic · individual · lifelong

neuroscience

binding

Legally or morally required

disinhibition · feedback · parietal · temporal · occipital · processing · mapping · neuroimaging · fMRI · perception

experience

involuntary

Not under conscious control

concurrent · inducer · auras · blending · overlay · triggered · associations

artistic

Kandinsky

Bauhaus painting instructor

cross-modal · immersive · psychedelic · abstract · expressionism · improvisation · notation · composition · chromatic

Opposites
sensory integration

synaesthesiasensory isolation

Blocking all external input

perceptual phenomenon type

synaesthesiahallucination

Perception without external cause

delusion · illusion · agnosia

sensory capacity

synaesthesiaanaesthesia

Induced loss of sensation

sensory deprivation · numbness · anosmia · deafness · blindness

Family

aesthetic, aesthetics, anesthesia, aesthete, anaesthetic, synesthesia, anaesthesia, anesthesias, anaesthetist

Familiarity
Top 1,000,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G