Synesthesia is a rare neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense (e.g., taste) produces experiences in a totally different sense (e.g., sight). The word ‘synesthesia’ comes from the Greek words syn (together) and aisthesis (perception). Therefore, synesthesia literally means “joined perception”. Synesthetes (people with synesthesia) see words, taste colours and shapes and feel flavours.
In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme-color synesthesia or color-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored. In spatial-sequence, or number form synesthesia, numbers, months of the year, or days of the week elicit precise locations in space (for example, 1980 may be “farther away” than 1990), or may appear as a three-dimensional map (clockwise or counterclockwise). Synesthetic associations can occur in any combination and any number of senses or cognitive pathways. Little is known about how synesthesia develops. It has been suggested that synesthesia develops during childhood when children are intensively engaged with abstract concepts for the first time. This hypothesis – referred to as semantic vacuum hypothesis – explains why the most common forms of synesthesia are grapheme-color, spatial sequence and number form. These are usually the first abstract concepts that educational systems require children to learn.
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