When R. listens to music, his mind generates colours that do not exist in the “real” world as perceived by “normal” people. He perceives classical music as “dark brown”, electronic music as mostly “purple”, and symphonic compositions as “red” (Mila ´n et al., 2007). This is the characteristic of one type of synaestesia.
Syneasthesia is a condition in which stimulation of one sensory modality causes unusual experiences in a second, unstimulated modality.
The term synesthesia comes from Greek, meaning “joined perception”. In synesthetes one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, such as when hearing a sound produces photisms (that is mental percepts of colors). Examples of synesthesia include visual experienced induced by music and other sounds; experiencing sounds when seeing visual motion; having taste or more accurately flavor sensations when hearing or reading words; and associating the sequence of numbers and months with specific spatial configurations. These few examples capture the diversity of the phenomenon.
Characteristics of Synesthesia
