This chicken tastes like triangles

A look at synesthesia and its psychedelic effects

Melissa Hiebert, Staff

“Incense and peppermints, the color of time ...” This trippy song by the band Strawberry Alarm Clock is almost an anthem for the acid-induced whirlwind that was the 60s. The lyrics seem to be nothing more than a pipe dream, for surely one can only refer to ‘the color of time’ after taking some kind of mind-altering substance. However, this is not so. A medical condition called synesthesia pushes perceptional boundaries, showing that an altered, non-drug-induced level of consciousness is possible.

Synesthesia is a medical condition in which sensory input of one type produces an entirely different sensation than is normally associated with it. The most common example of this is the sensation of a certain colour associated with a word, letter or number. Other cases include units of time or mathematical equations having their own shapes, tastes having their own colours, and people’s names having their own smells.

Synesthesia has been a known condition for a few hundred years by some estimates and was originally dismissed as a crossing of wires in the brain. But new research shows that synesthesia might be a result of an overabundance of neural connections in the brain. Researcher Simon Baron-Cohen explained that “different sensory functions are assigned to separate modules in the brain, with limited communication between them.” He believes that synesthetes are equipped with more connections between neurons, and therefore the usual pattern of operation in the brain is skewed, which causes synesthesia.

Although there is no hard and fast method of diagnosis, there exist some criteria upon which diagnosis is possible. One is that the sensations have to be involuntary. They just occur naturally and instantaneously without thought or introspection. Another criteria is that the perception must occur externally. A phenomenon actually has to be real, rather than just thought. The sensation one gets from a certain perception has to be the same every time (but usually varies from person to person), and usually the primary sense has to be stronger than the original. For example, the green colour experienced from hearing the name ‘Bob’ has to be remembered more predominately than the name itself.

Anyone is able to have synesthesia, but there are some general factors determining who is more likely to be a synesthete. More women than men have it, as it seems to be genetically passed down through the X chromosome. Also, synesthetes are more likely to be left-handed than the general population. There are many estimates of how many people have it, ranging from 1 in 200 to 1 in 100, 000, most likely due to the varying intensities of the condition and debates over what qualifies.

Unlike most medical conditions, however, this is one that many people would rather have than be without.

“If you ask synesthetes if they’d wish to be rid of it, they almost always say no,” stated Baron-Cohen. “For them, it feels like that’s what normal experience is like. To have that taken away would make them feel like they were being deprived of one sense.”

This seems to make sense. I mean, is there anyone who, after reading this article, isn’t wondering what colour of time it is right now? I know I am.