An interesting neurological disorder involving the “cross-wiring” of our senses is called synesthesia. Individuals with synesthesia have simply put, “blended” senses. This means they may see colors when listening to music or associate a word with a specific taste. The most common form of synesthesia is grapheme-color synesthesia, the association of letters and numbers with a distinct color. Although synesthesia is already cool, research shows people with this disorder have better memory, tend to score higher on tests that measure intelligence, and are more creative!
Normally, the processing of our surroundings happens in three steps. Step one is detection, which is just our senses picking up on something around us (e.g. hearing sounds). Step two is signaling, which is our senses sending a signal to our brain describing what they sensed (e.g. how loud a sound is or its pitch). Lastly, processing sends the signal to a more specific part of our brain to understand what was sensed (e.g. recognizing sound as music). If you have synesthesia, your signals get sent to multiple areas of the brain meaning you will get a primary and–at least–one secondary effect. The primary effect is the sense that is actually picked up on your surroundings and the secondary effect(s) are senses that did not get real input. For example, hearing music (primary effect) and seeing colors (secondary effect) as a result.
This disorder is physically harmless but can take a toll on some people’s mental health. In rare cases, some people do not enjoy the secondary effects of their condition which can cause mental exhaustion or even phantom pain. So, therapy is often recommended for those individuals who become overwhelmed by the constant stimulation of incorrect senses.
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