Synaesthesia

Phonature Audio Aura Ball: The Audio Aura Ball changes color according to the pitch of the prevailing music. © 2007 Display Research Laboratory (see here)

"I have had migraine aura, but that does mess with my vision, and sound colours don't."

(Jac, Chaos Theory Test Site - Ooh! Look at the pretty music!, April 19, 2006)

"Synaesthesia is like a migraine headache or Asperger's syndrome in the sense of it being both an afflicton and a gift."

(Ashley Pomeroy, Everything - Synasthesia, May 14, 2006)

Richard E. Cytowic, Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses - Second Edition, MIT Press, New York 2002

Auditory-visual synaesthesia occurring as transitory migraine aura symptom in non-synaesthetes

In migraineurs who are non-synaesthetes, synaesthesia may occur as a transitory aura symptom characterised by a cross-referencing of senses whereby a stimulus in one sensory field leads to a hallucination in another sensory field.

For example, sounds might be "seen", as described by Miss J.R.B. in the case report by Podoll and Robinson (2002). Further first-hand accounts from likely (anarch), self-reported (Melvin Rader, Rys McCusker, Alanna, mick, leto, Andrea, John Fenderson) or definite migraine sufferers (Linda Anderson, Susan McCallen and Zoë Martell) are quoted here from miscellaneous internet sources.

"Not too long ago, I had a very interesting time after being awake for about thirty hours without eating anything. When I was working, walking around, etc., everything was normal, but as I relaxed and started to fall into that dazed, half-dreamy state I get after staying up too long, I started to see curious things -- bright little lights like you see staring at blue sky and the wiggles and wavers that come after looking fixedly at some patterned surface, but they were much more prominent than usual. They were fun for a while, but then I noticed something even more interesting: mild audio-visual synaesthesia -- the lights and patterns were definitely affected by the sounds I was hearing. It was especially noticeable with my eyes closed. Cars passing in the street would make big geometric floral patterns flare up on my eyelids, then die away, and smaller sounds made the lights flicker and jump. I'd never felt anything like it before, and haven't since, but it was really cool."

(anarch, Newsgroups: alt.drugs, Subject: Sleep deprivation experiences, July 16, 1993)

As response to anarch's previously quoted entry to the Usenet Newsgroups, another subject replied: "Sounds a lot like what I get with a migraine... I've never gotten that from not sleeping. But then I've never tried not eating. Interesting..."

(Melvin Rader, Newsgroups: alt.drugs, Subject: Sleep deprivation experiences, July 17, 1993)

"Now an update on my health, expressed in terms of my best recent reconstruction. My left eye blind spots are better, and now I have some idea whence they came. I've had migraines since I was nine years old, usually with intense visual aura. Ironically, intense migraine pain went away in high school when I stopped caring. Now a migraine attack merely means an hour of synaesthesia and neural disorder. So how do I suddenly get semi-permanent blind spots that never happened before? I think it was caused by my drastic caffeine reduction after my chest pains. But the chest pains were not my heart -- probably a pinched nerve in my neck. My physical xrays clearly showed arthritus in my neck vertebrae might be a cause. (My neck is definitely a problem, I just didn't know it was that extreme.) Okay, so I drop my caffeine intake for several weeks, and then drink some tequila. You see, I don't drink -- normally one glass of champagne on new years each year. I had a couple strong margaritas that my wife made on my last day at Netscape. Within two hours, I had the new blind spots in my left eye. Perhaps a connection? It seems tequila can affect caffeine metabolization, which might affect migraines. And this can even explain the dizzyness one day, since migraines can do that too. You can imagine I like this explanation a whole lot better than other possibilities. Okay, that's the story. Bad neck, fine heart, less caffeine, tequila, neural glitch."

(Rys McCusker, April 23, 2000)

"[For me, synaesthesia is] not an all-the-time thing -- normally I have no crossover, but let a migraine hit and I go into sensory overload: sounds become tactile and light is ambulance-like screaming. Any other migraineurs have the same effect?"

(Alanna, Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.composition, Subject: food weapons?, August 4, 2002)

"Also my senses get confused [during a migraine attack]. Sometimes I think I can 'see' sounds or 'hear' colors, in fact it seems that colors and sounds share the same 'tones' and I'm not 100% sure of which really comes first."

(Susan McCallen, Email to Klaus Podoll, February 12, 2003; additions in square brackets by Klaus odoll)

Linda Anderson, Cat Fight, oil crayon on sandpaper (21" x 28"), 1984. © 2004 Linda Anderson

"My visual auras were there from the very first headache at 12 years old. The ability to paint came to me all at once in 1982. Before that I'd never painted. I've never had any art training. The skill of sewing came the same way in the 70's. My first headache painting was about 1984. That was Cat Fight. Once during a migraine our cats were fighting and their noise somehow became integrated with the shapes of my migraine aura [i.e. auditory-visual synaesthesia]. Cat Fight was painted during this attack. When I thought of making into pictures the beautiful colors and shapes appearing before my eyes, there seemed to be an urgency to put it down. I had a need to paint out the pain of the headache to come - I guess that was my thinking. Another thing: While the aura always came in different moving shapes, I don't recall it in bright bold colors or that outside noises could take a color and shape - not until the Cat Fight. That's when I believe it first took me away to that other place."

(Linda Anderson, Email to Klaus Podoll, December 31, 2002; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"The writing on synaesthesia [by Linda Anderson] spoke to my experiences well -- I often feel as if sounds interfere with my visual field. I don't literally 'see' them (as a true visual hallucination) but there is definitely some cross-over between the auditory and visual fields -- too much sound really interferes with my visual processing. Likewise for touch and sound -- physical sensations seem to have a 'tone' or 'tenor' somehow. Again -- if I have no task in front of me except to paint, this can actually be a useful source of inspiration. It certainly interferes with the more mundane aspects of life, though -- such as driving, work requiring concentration, etc. The synaesthesia experiences are only in relation to migraines -- I don't experience this except just before and during the migraine experience."

(Zoë Martell, Email to Klaus Podoll, June 25-26, 2005; additions in square brackets by Klaus Podoll)

"Strangely, most migraine people have synaesthetic moments. We call it aura when sounds become colors (bright striking yellow and blood red for me) and touch becomes sounds (like a cop whistling in your ear), that's the sign a migraine crisis is on the way.

AFAIK, one of migraine cause has to do with the way neurotransmission works, and maybe under stress our brain (and in this case it would apply to all humans) is able to make the connexion synesthetic people's brain does all the time."

(Leto, Free Cafe, General chat board, June 13, 2005)

"I’m a synæsthetic migraineur, experiencing not only head-cracking agony, but also sensory cross-talk: the color turquoise sounds like the crunching of very dry snow pellets; swingset squeaks from the playground at the end of the block feel like I am turning over a giant piece of stiff paper, the texture of my pillowcase makes everything taste like chrome, and the sound of the air conditioner in another room feels like water running over different parts of my body."

(Andrea, Andrea's buzzing about - Passing Out And Going Through (the migraine), undated)

"Some people though, like Mick reports in the synaesthesia link, even experience pleasant synaesthesia as part of the postdrome: ... I don’t get that. When I get synaesthesia at all (about 25% of the time), it’s part of the main show, not the postdrome, and it's a very bad thing."

(Sir Fancy Reverend John Fenderson, Discordian Research Technology, August 1, 2006)

Increase of intensity of synaesthesia as migraine aura symptom in synaesthetes

In migraineurs who are synaesthetes, the intensity of synaesthesia may transitorily increase as a migraine aura symptom.

"I'm not always synaesthetic, usually just pre, during and post migraine.

However, once in a while I get full blown outrageous synaesthesia and it makes life difficult. I find it hard to be cogent to anyone, and it's a real effort.

I have never been able to create this way, mainly because (don't laugh) the taste of the paint on my hands is bad or the smell of the color isn't quite right and so on. It's hard. Really hard.

I can't do graphite like this because the color feels funny and I know reading this later when I'm not synaesthetic so strongly it'll make no sense to me either.

I'd love to try to put down what I'm sensing, but I don't seem to have the tools?

Suggestions would be welcome - including ones that'd make the sharpened metal rose on the ceiling hurt my eyes less."

(Jeannette Randall, WetCanvas, Subject: synaesthesia and art, July 6, 2005)

"Sorry guys, I sorta forgot about this thread once the headache was gone and hadn't revisited it. Just happened to see it in my inbox just now.

What media have you worked with during your migraine episodes, and what were your perceptions? The reason why I ask is that maybe there's some consistent information there which you could pull together and make some sense out of when you feel better, so that you could plan ahead with some kind of project for the next episode?

Once in a while I do have something planned out that I can keep working on, but for the most part, there's nothing I can stand the taste/smell/touch/sight/feel of for long enough to get anything remotely resembling useful done. It takes my breath away to hold a pencil, and it's horrible the way some of these materials and papers feel when you're like that.

Melting the various senses together is one of the aims of art, or at least, trying to elicit a response from the recipient that really pulls them into the work, and that usually involves multiple levels of reaction. Color, form, texture, you know of course. It sounds like synaesthesia adds more 'properties' to each element for you than for the average individual, so you have to balance out even more information than the average artist.

That's definitely true. The properties added are sometimes a good thing as I feel I have a deeper understanding of things going on around me, levels that sometimes no one else is aware of. It's a cool thing, really, except when it's not...

Let's see if I can sort this into a more coherent pattern.

touch => taste, colors. Something can feel black, or red or whatever, usually the worst sensation I know of is when I've been up walking too much without my wheelchair, and I get a 'black' sensation in my lower back which means if I don't sit down right now, I'm going to fall down. It's akin to the way you feel right before passing out, with the world fading away. This is one of the reasons I generally dislike being touched. Some people just taste wrong. I know that sounds funny.

light => smell, sensation. Light can feel sharp, or pointy, or soft like a pillow. There have been times when I thought that something smelled welcoming, or something smelled like sleep because it smelled just like the bed covers and sheets and pillows. Alternatively sometimes it's harsh and bad, and smells like an overwhelming rose garden that makes you want to hurl.

taste => light, feel, sensation, colors, shapes. Something can taste bright, or taste the way it feels to go outside just after the sun has come up and there's a cool breeze. I love the drinks from Sonic because they're often in this. The Sonic Sunrise (when mixed right) tastes bright, and the strawberry limeade tastes bright and flowery and like big giant red pillowy spheres.

smell => colors, sensation, feel. Something can smell the way it feels to lay down in a cozy comfortable bed that smells welcoming.

sound => colors, shapes. The sound of water from the master bath sink faucet usually feels like ribbons and little heavy bubbles, all in shades of blue - quite comforting, really.

I think that about covers it.

Under normal circumstances, I don't notice it, it's just a sensation that I have that I've always had. Right before and during a migraine, and sometimes just after, the sensations are so strong and out of whack that I can't help but notice, and I don't always make sense. It's like when I try to fetch the words for 'the light' I come up with 'sharp metal rose' instead, because that's what my immediate association with it is.

My husband has gotten fairly used to this, fortunately, and says that even though I make no sense he's gotten used to it."

(Jeannette Randall, Artist's webpage at WetCanvas, August 3, 2005)

"Do you find your synaesthesia is stronger when you are having a full-blown migraine? Mine becomes very intense....."

(lapetiteflower, LiveJournal group synaesthesis - Synaesthialicious, March 31, 2006)

"I have migraines with and without the pain. I get the visuals, the blindness, confusion, aphasia and dyslexia etc. etc. etc. When I'm having a migraine generally the sound/color synaesthesia gets cranked up a bit ~ especially if I am having the pain. Instead of just 'perceiving' that a sound has a color I actually see the color and shape of the sound."

(lapetiteflower, LiveJournal group synaesthesis - Synaesthialicious, April 1, 2006)

"I have classic migraines...... I get the aura and all that 'fun' stuff. I also have migraines where I just have an aura and no pain. When I have a migraine I go from hearing a noise and 'knowing' or 'perceiving' that it has a shape and color to actually seeing the shapes and color associated with the noise. In addition to synaesthesia I have visual snow and flashies all the time (and I have as long as I can remember), tinnitus and bouts of Alice in Wonderland syndrome.

Needless to say, nobody else sees the world just like I do."

(lapetiteflower, LiveJournal group synaesthesis - Migraines, April 1, 2006)

Pain-colour synaesthesia experienced during acute migraine attacks by synaesthetic migraineurs

"I have synaesthesia. Letters and numbers and whole words have colour. Some numbers have personality. Voices, music and noises in general have colour, movement and texture. Certain tastes have colour, texture and shape. Smell has colour and texture. Physical feelings - especially pain, has colour, movement, shape and texture.

I also get migraines, they are severe and I can honestly say that they are the bane of my existence. They are always on the right side of my head. The pain is intense. The colours of the pain vary according to the intensity of the pain and the movement and texture of the colours work in accordance to the throbbing. What I am interested to learn more about is if there is a connection between actual synaesthesia and migraines. (Please note that I have and have always had synaesthesia - it's present all the time regardless of my migraines but the colours and texture of some smells and sounds is more! 'there' during an attack. Due to the intense pain and sickly feeling of the attack, I am consumed by the colour, movement shape and texture of this as well. I feel the colours etc, from the pain inside me whereas that from the smell and noise feels external.)"

(Juliet, Email to Klaus Podoll, April 22, 2005)

"My migraines can be very colourful and full of shapes - they are usually the darker shades of green and purple which blend together, separate, overlap etc... like oil on water while the shapes form out of black and maroon on top of this - it is a very 3D experience hard to describe and no two migraines are ever the same. One thing I can say that they all have in common is that there are never colours like yellow, pink, white or any colour mixed with white."

(Juliet, Email to Klaus Podoll, April 25, 2005)

"As with all my other types of synaesthesia, it is simply to me something that was always there and I would probably have never acknowledged it as a 'phenomenon' if I hadn't happened upon a TV documentary about synaesthesia about 9 years ago.

You call it pain-colour synaesthesia but I experience synaesthesia sensation from physical feelings in general - not just pain. For example temperature. Right now I am in my office I feel warm except for my feet which feel a little cold. To me right now, my body is orange but my feet are a hazy grey/blue.

What I do find interesting is that I remember some painful experiences not so much by the pain but by the synaesthetic experience that was induced by the pain. For example, when I was 12 years old I had a gymnastics accident where I cut my shin badly - right down to the bone and had to have 18 stitches in my leg. I had to stay in bed for over 2 weeks with my leg raised, and during this time while the wound was healing, there was a day where the pain was particularly bad - I think it had something to do with the blood flow but every thirty seconds or so, it would throb and sting and I can see the colours of the pain so clearly still and can describe it as oily black and dark green space punctuated by neon purple tiny balls or sparks which would appear with the stinging prickly sensation. Still, to this day, whenever I think about that accident or if anyone questions me about the scar on my leg, these colours and shapes arise."

(Juliet, Email to Klaus Podoll, April 25, 2005)

"My mother and I both get migraines (yay genetics) - she isn't synesthetic (that I know of), but we both get the same 'laser light show' effect right before they hit- my mom has described her's as a pinprick of light (like the imprint that the filament of a lightbulb leaves on your eyes for a while after looking directly at it) that grows slowly, when it fills her field of vision, the pain hits...

I actually get these massive, sometimes beautiful kaleidescopes of color and shapes for about 15 full minutes before the actual migraine sets in... I normally experience sound-color syn and sometimes shapes... but I've never noticed any connection to sounds during the migraine or the lightshow, so I've never personally considered that my migraines had anything to do with the syn."

(hearingincolor, LiveJournal group synaesthesis - Migraines, April 2, 2006)

"My migraines (which begin with a kaleidescope of color anyway) mellow out into a sickly brownish-grey color... which is often the texture of grainy, sort of chalky paste... just an overall ick."

(hearingincolor, LiveJournal group synaesthesis - Green headache, April 4, 2007)

Eckart Freuwört, Synaesthetic perception of migraine headache, 2006. © 2006 Eckart Freuwört (see hier)

"Der eigentliche Migräne-Kopfschmerz - zuerst hämmernd und pochend, später dann eine pulsierende Last im Kopf - ist für mich synästhetisch sichtbar. Er besteht aus einer schmutzig-weißen Scheibe mit asymmetrisch umlaufendem, zerfaserndem grauen Rand in einer Kopfhälfte. Leider ist es mir nicht gelungen, in das Bild die zugehörige Räumlichkeit mit einfließen zu lassen. Ein - leider nicht immer funktionelles - Verfahren zum Besiegen des Schmerzes besteht darin, die reguläre und die synästhetische Wahrnehmung für einige Stunden umzukehren, d. h. die Synästhesie 'in den Vordergrund' zu holen. Im gleichen Maße, wie die modulare Wahrnehmung zurück gedrängt wird, vermindert sich auch der Schmerz. Den Versuch ist die Methode allemal wert."

(Eckart Freuwört, Synästhesie, 2006)

"Meine Tochter ist auch Synästhetikerin. Sie konnte Kopfschmerzen mit dabei gesehenen Farben unterscheiden (Migräne oder Erkältungskopfschmerz z. B.)."

(saxo, med1 Forum - Cafe - Synästhesie, 26.04.2005)

Emotion-colour synaesthesia: Seeing another person's migraine

Supposed psychic powers that enable people to see "auras" around others may be nothing more than the manifestation of a condition known as emotion-colour synaesthesia, according to Jamie Ward's study published in the October 2004 issue of the journal "Cognitive Neuropsychology".

Two years earlier, artist Catherine Cartwright-Jones has described such experiences of emotion-colour synaesthesia in a post to the The Henna Page Forum, a forum devoted to Henna Body Art. For Cartwright-Jones, seeing a migraine sufferer's physical discomfort "is grey and partially opaque" – a unique variation on the theme of perception of pain in loved ones or other people.

"I don't see smells .............. but music, feelings, sensations .... I don't see smells in color, but for me music has colors. I can frequently see the colors of people's emotions or physical discomfort. (A migraine is grey and partially opaque, excitement has little light flashes). If a person near me is concentrating on a visual image, I can see it. (I keep this shut off most of the time as it's rude to be so intrusive, and it's not helpful in relationships.)

Thanks for the synaesthesia link! I hadn't thought about it in about 30 years, when I last had a conversation with another synaesthesiac, and the brain function wasn't understood then. She insisted whomever put "Fantasia" together was a synaesthesiac."

(Catheria Cartwright Jones, The Henna Page Forum, Subject: I don't see smells .............. but music, feelings, sensations ...., October 21, 2002)

"I don't have migraines myself, though my husband and daughter do. I could see my husband's feelings and migraines. I'll inquire if my daughter sees such. I think she might.

A long time ago, I drew what I saw, but I don't think I have those drawings anymore. I could do so again. I used to see the loveliest things, but have ignored them for a long time. My ability to see other people's emotions and thoughts have often strongly influenced my art (see here). People often comment 'when you do art on people, it's as if the design 'belongs' there.'

Catherine

PS: My daughter says colors have tastes ..."

(Email to Klaus Podoll, August 13, 2005)

"My daughter had a migraine yesterday ........ I could see gray coming in as the migraine 'settled in'. She commented while the migraine was oncoming that 'The sky has been 10 different colors in the last half hour'.

I'll draw what I see and scan the images for you today.

Its been a long time since I've been aware of seeing other people who are ill, because I run a home business and the only times I've been around ill people are the occasions when I've been ill myself."

(Email to Klaus Podoll, August 14, 2005)

"The genetic link there intrigues me! I have notebooks of drawings of what I see in music, emotions, sensations, etc. I think I'll hang onto those .... because if same were done independently done by my mother, daugher, and whatever progeny happens .... interesting comparison!

I know all of us, back 4 generations have similar 'psi' abilibities ... and each were interpreted differently through 'evangelical Southern Baptist', 'educator for the severely mentally disabled' and 'whateverthehellitisthatsCatherine' and Gwyn's 'bullshit detector'. We operate about the same, but it's through different cultural filters. It tends to make us unpopular with the people we can 'tune in on' because we know too goddamn much for comfort (which is why I keep mine turned off).

30+ years ago, I got tested for the abilities, and ..... declared wholly sane ... but what I was able to do wasn't in the perimeters of what people's minds were presumed to be able to do. (Dogs do it justfine, but not people). I'm grateful that I was never told it was either satanic or holy. Both of those are bullshit. Maybe if I have granddaughters they'll get a handle on it. It's not magic, it's just plain old real, and ... I look forward to finding out whatever it is.I suspect its just a brain cramp that's occasionally useful, but mostly a minor nuisance.

I wonder if I can find that old recording of Beethoven's 9th that had absolutely PERFECT rainbows! I'm very picky about the 9th, last movement, because if it's not done just right, the colors get wrecked.

Digi music is colorless, certainly if it's electronically generated..... no color, and I can't remember what I've just heard. Live music is full of color. The recordings pre-digi have color, but nothing like live. I like Miles Davis 'Sketches of Spain' and other old things becuase the colors are ..... exquisite.

I used to sit with my best friend in a darkened room and play music to look at the colors. They're easiest to see if the lights aren't bright. She couldn't see color patterns forming over the turntable ... but ...if I touched her and concentrated ... then she could see them too. Long, long time ago. She died many years ago.

My intro to body art was from being able to see what people were thinking. I'd henna the patterns on them that I could see forming on their skin as I relaxed and looked ... like shining light webs, and I'd just trace them. They'd get all excited like it was magic. A dog could see the same thing, but they thought it was something special. I quit doing that because it's very disorienting, and I dislike the woo-woo."

(Catheria Cartwright Jones, The Henna Page Forum, Subject: The Genetic Link (thoroughly o/t ... mostly), October 22, 2002)

References

Cytowic RE. Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses - Second Edition. MIT Press, New York 2002
Die Farben des Schmerzes. Synästhesie - Sinneswahrnehmungen während einer Migräne-Attacke. Migräne Magazin Heft 10, 2005.
Podoll K. Migräneaura, Synästhesie und künstlerische Inspiration. In: Clausberg K, Bisanz E, Weiller C (eds) Ausdruck - Austtrahlung - Aura. Synästhesien der Beseelung im Medienzeitalter. Hippocampus, Bad Honnef 2007, 185-196. [more]
Podoll K, Robinson D. Auditory-visual synaesthesia in a patient with basilar migraine. J Neurol 2002; 249: 476-477.
Podoll K, Robinson D, Nicola U. Ricorrente sinestesia acustico-visiva come cintomo della aura emicranica. [Recurrent auditory-visual synaesthesia as aura symptom in migraine. In Italian] Confinia Cephalalgica 2005; 9: 7-11.
Schulz M. Rezension zu Clausberg K, Bisanz E, Weiller C (eds) Ausdruck - Austtrahlung - Aura. Synästhesien der Beseelung im Medienzeitalter. Hippocampus, Bad Honnef 2007, in: sehepunkte 2007; 7 (nr. 7/8)
Ward J. Emotionally-mediated synaesthesia. Cognitive Neuropsychology 2004; 21: 761-772.

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