I sometimes asscociate a colour with a particular sound.Does anyone else experience this?

Question

When I hear deep notes on a marimba I immediately think of deep blue.

Answer 1

"Synesthesia (also spelled synæsthesia or synaesthesia, plural synesthesiae) -- from the Greek syn- meaning union and aesthesis meaning sensation -- is a neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled. In a form of synesthesia known as grapheme → color synesthesia, letters or numbers may be perceived as inherently colored"1

"Theories of the neural basis of synesthesia start from the observation that there are dedicated regions of the brain that are specialized for certain functions. Based on this notion of specialized regions, some researchers have suggested that increased cross-talk between different regions specialized for different functions may account for different types of synesthesia. For example, since regions involved in the identification of letters and numbers lie adjacent to a region involved in color processing (V4), the additional experience of seeing colors when looking at graphemes might be due to "cross-activation" of V4 (Ramachandran & Hubbard 2001). This cross-activation may arise due to a failure of the normal developmental process of pruning.

Alternatively, synesthesia may arise though "disinhibited feedback" or a reduction in the amount of inhibition along feedback pathways (Grossenbacher & Lovelace 2001). Normally, the balance of excitation and inhibition are maintained. However, if normal feedback were not adequately inhibited, then signals coming from later multisensory stages of processing might influence earlier stages of processing, such that tones would activate visual cortical areas in synesthetes more than in non-synesthetes. In this case, it might explain why some users of psychedelic drugs such as LSD or mescaline report temporary synesthetic experiences while under the influence of the drug."1

If you want to listen to one of the world's experts in this area of research then listen to a very fascinating miniseries on BBC entitled "The Emerging Mind" with neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/

Answer 2

syn-es-the-sia n. Physiol. Sensation produced at a point other than
or remote from the point of stimulation, as of a color from hearing a
certain sound (fr. Gk, syn = together + aisthesis = to perceive).
Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense. In addition to being involuntary, this additional perception is regarded by the synesthete as real, often outside the body, instead of imagined in the mind's eye. It also has some other interesting features that clearly separate it from artistic fancy or purple prose. Its reality and vividness are what make synesthesia so interesting in its violation of conventional perception. Synesthesia is also fascinating because logically it should not be a product of the human brain, where the evolutionary trend has been for increasing separation of function anatomically.

Answer 3

The artist Kandinsky associate colour with both sound and taste. He even wrote a (small) book about it.

I would expect your a strongly visual person and are using the sensing of a colour to highlight your aural sense.

Personally my aural sense isn't as strong as my visual and kineasthetic (touch), so I suppose in theory I might sense a texture along with a colour.

Answer 4

All the time! You must be a musician. If your not, you should be. I associate the chord of G with a dusty brown colour. The chord of D i associate with a deep red colour. Minors of these chords result in varying shades of the root chord just like the chords themselves. Always had it!

Answer 5

You are experiencing your clairaudiaunce. You are discovering more of your truth as it relates to The Truth. Trust yourself when you hear a news cast or someone speaking . What colours do you see, more importantly how do you feel. Develop all your senses. This is one of your gifts. Hone them. Have you seen the show HERO'S. HMmmm our lives are always mirrored to us on the external.There's something to ponder eh!

Answer 6

i think it is normal coz i like you ,not sounds only but also some places and persons when i see them or hear about then i asscociate it with a color

Answer 7

yes i've felt this when i listen to instumental music. i close my eyes and i tend to lose myself in it when all these colours pour into my mind thats so far been filled with music. with percussion, yellow, red and orange flow like paints and gold comes with strings.its as if a graphic equaliser has been set loose in my mind

Answer 8

this may help

www.bu.edu/neuropsychology/synvc.html