Seeing song through the ears of a synesthete

[Music] blue and black or white and gold no doubt some of you are you know what I'm talking about but for those of you who don't imagine you're wasting time on the internet like you do you come across a picture of a dress this dress was a viral meme that broke the internet and - back in February 2015 now some people thought the distress was blue and black while others were just as adamant that it was white and gold but how is it possible how could we be looking at the same dress and see two completely different dresses does it make sense for all that neuroscience has revealed about the senses we still understand very little about how and why senses differ from one person to the next we are becoming more and more aware that they do differ and sometimes it's by quite a bit in my case my senses are blended pretty uniquely and how I found this out took me by surprise okay so back in college I was taking a music theory course like you do on the very last day our professor gave us what he thought was an interesting tidbit he said some people can physically see sounds to which I replied duh what are you doing this wasn't news to me I grew up hearing in color when I hear a musical note I automatically see flashes of shapes and colors it's just how it's always been I've never known any other way but what was news to me was that this made me different imagine being in your 20s and finding out something brand-new about how you physically experienced the world blew my mind and if our primary understanding comes from the senses what does that mean for those whom the senses are crossed what can we learn about the brain from such a phenomenon and I'll admit it sounds really trippy but this is real the phenomenon in your firm - is called synesthesia now synesthesia is just a general term to describe when two senses are inherently crossed causing simulation from one sense to lead to an automatic involuntary experience in another so for example someone who has grapheme which are just numbers and letters to color synesthesia might see this word like this synesthesia first word like this now sidebar these are just the colors that I experienced for these letters and it is most likely going to be different for any other person with this type of synesthesia is beautiful and it's kind of incredible when you get several people with the same types of synesthesia in the same room because they will throw down to talk about what color something actually is okay whatever that means it's great now synesthesia isn't as rare as originally believed it was once thought that only one in two million people had it but now more research has been done and genetic links have been found that suggest as many as one in 23 people have some form of it now let's put that into perspective think about every single person you know that has an allergic reaction to peanuts all right you got it now imagine them all in one group now double the size of that group whether you realize it or not statistically that's roughly how many people you personally know that have synesthesia it's great now I'm a musician and I use my synesthesia to learn songs I pay attention to the landscape that correlates with musical colors and make it happen and like I said it is a very personal experience and it can be actually hard to depict you describe to someone who doesn't have it in order to do so my husband Matt Hoeven I have created a synesthesia light show to show you what I these are what musical notes look like to me C is always read D is always blue you super yellow that's just like a weird light cream well G is super green and then a is like an orangish red B is purple I'm going to finish it this okay this is what a song sounds like [Music] [Music] [Music] you you you [Music] [Applause] personally I feel like 21 years old is a little late in life to find out but you might be different in any way but really how often do we sit down and think about how our senses might differ from one another deeply we should be asking these questions more often I need to imagine what we could learn if we ask people have you solve a math problem what happens in your mind before you give the correct answer do you see shapes you see colors what does it mean to know you have the correct answer what is that feeling is that feeling a color knowing the answer asking these questions could bet have sent education giving us a better idea of how people actually learn these questions can give us a window into the inner workings of the human mind thank you you

Channel: TEDMED

Views: 190,108

Rating: 4.9605651 out of 5

Keywords: TEDMED, Hovalin, Kaitlyn Hova, 3D Printing, Synesthesia, Women Who Code, Hova Labs, Violin

Id: 1LUbxfnpez4

Length: 9min 45sec (585 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 11 2017