Grapheme-color synesthesia

Grapheme-color synaesthesia or colored grapheme synesthesia is a form of synesthesia in which an individual's perception of numerals and letters is associated with the experience of colors. Like all forms of synesthesia, Grapheme-color synesthesia is involuntary, consistent, and memorable. Grapheme-color synesthesia is one of the most common forms of synesthesia, and because of the extensive knowledge of the visual system, one of the most studied.''One day,' I said to my father, 'I realized that to make an 'R' all I had to do was first write a 'P' and then draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line.'''A few years ago, I mentioned to a friend that I remembered phone numbers by their colour. He said 'So you're a synesthete!' I hadn't heard of synesthesia (which means something close to 'sense-fusion') – I only knew that numbers seemed naturally to have colours: five is blue, two is green, three is red… And music has colours too: the key of C# minor is a sharp, tangy yellow, F major is a warm brown...''For me, numbers were always colors, for example, six is blue. But colors aren't numbers; it's a one way synesthesia for me. As a youth I was just crazy about the number six and the color blue. Whenever possible I would use the number six in relation to blue. I did grow out of this to some degree and it's more of an intellectual curiosity now. In general I find my mind is highly associative, it's a creative tool that allows me to dream up complex stories with interesting juxtapositions and analogies.'When I see equations, I see the letters in colors – I don't know why. As I'm talking, I see vague pictures of Bessel functions from Jahnke and Emde's book, with light-tan j's, slightly violet-bluish n's, and dark brown x's flying around. And I wonder what the hell it must look like to the students.'As C relates ... 'It is difficult to explain...I see what you see. I know the numbers are in black...but as soon as I recognise the form of a 7 it has to be yellow.'I came back from college on a semester break, and was sitting with my family around the dinner table, and – I don't know why I said it – but I said, 'The number five is yellow.' There was a pause, and my father said, 'No, it's yellow-ochre.' And my mother and my brother looked at us like, 'this is a new game, would you share the rules with us?''I sometimes use my synaesthesia to help me remember difficult proper names. Here's a Thai chef who wrote a terrific vegetarian cookbook : Grapheme-color synaesthesia or colored grapheme synesthesia is a form of synesthesia in which an individual's perception of numerals and letters is associated with the experience of colors. Like all forms of synesthesia, Grapheme-color synesthesia is involuntary, consistent, and memorable. Grapheme-color synesthesia is one of the most common forms of synesthesia, and because of the extensive knowledge of the visual system, one of the most studied. While it is extremely unlikely that any two synesthetes will report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies of large numbers of synesthetes find that there are some commonalities across letters (e.g., 'A' is likely to be red). Early studies argued that grapheme-color synesthesia was not due to associative learning, such as from playing with colored refrigerator magnets. However, one recent study has documented a case of synesthesia in which synesthetic associations could be traced back to colored refrigerator magnets. Despite the existence of this individual case, the majority of synesthetic associations do not seem to be driven by learning of this sort. Rather, it seems that more frequent letters are paired with more frequent colors, and some meaning-based rules, such as ‘b’ being blue, drive most synesthetic associations. There has been a lot more research as to why and how synesthesia occurs with more recent technology and as synesthesia has become more well known. It has been found that grapheme-color synesthetes have more grey matter in their brain. There is evidence of an increased grey matter volume in the left caudal intra- parietal sulcus (IPS). There was also found to be an increased grey matter volume in the right fusiform gyrus. These results are consistent with another study on the brain functioning of grapheme-color synesthetes. Grapheme-color synesthetes tend to have an increased thickness, volume, and surface area of the fusiform gyrus. Furthermore, the area of the brain where word, letter, and color processing are located, V4a, is where the most significant difference in make-up was found. Though not certain, these differences are thought to be part of the reasoning for the presence of grapheme-color synesthesia. Synesthetes often report that they were unaware their experiences were unusual until they realized other people did not have them, while others report feeling as if they had been keeping a secret their entire lives. Many synesthetes can vividly remember when they first noticed their synesthetic experiences, or when they first learned that such experiences were unusual. Writer and synesthete Patricia Lynne Duffy remembers one early experience: As does filmmaker Stephanie Morgenstern: