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Chromesthesia Stephanie Panicali

History of Color

Humans evolved with the ability to see colors because seeing color gave early humans a "significant nutritional advantage" because it allowed them to identify colorful plants with high nutritional value such as seeds, nuts, and fruit against a vast green background (Finlay, 392). While color vision was a "critical turning point" for the sophistication of the human brain, it also contributed to the development of human society and language through "color coding" (Finlay, 393). Color coding is a "universal phenomenon" originating from the first civilized societies; it is used for "identifying political status, social ranks, moral virtual, liturgical rituals, holidays, and venerated symbols" (Finlay, 399).

Color as a Sensation

Just as color coding has assisted in the development of human society and language, it has also contributed to the development of human sensation. Colors are "concepts of sensations" and have "always been connected to sensations" (Vendler, 400). Upon the sight of colors to the human eye, they are "immediately associated with emotions of the mind" (Vendler, 399). Some of the most common color associations that are consistent throughout the world are yellow eliciting a serene and soft feeling, blue a more cold and remote feeling, red a feeling of anger, and green invoking a feeling of rest (Vendler, 393). The world is full of color and "no other phenomenal domain affects us more constantly and, except for music, more deeply than the display of color" (Vendler, 399). Chromesthesia is a mix of the sensations of both color and music, making it a deeply impactful experience.

The Case Study

The subject of this case study is D, who is a middle-aged woman. She is an art educator who was born, raised, and still resides in the United States in a middle-class environment. At the age of five she began to show interest in music, specifically singing and playing piano, and she also showed interest in art. She took many years of piano lessons up through her first two years of college, where she graduated with a degree in art and art education, and later became an art educator. D has chromesthesia or “color hearing” which is a form of synesthesia meaning that when she hears musical notes, she experiences not only an auditory sensation, but also a visual color experience (Haack, Radocy).

D became aware of her chromesthesia in grade school while doing artwork and listening to music. She thought the sensation was an ordinary condition like wearing glasses. D did not know she had a unique condition. From 1974-1979, her chromesthesia was studied using four interviews and testing sessions. Throughout the 5 years of the study, her color and note associations were 100% consistent.

How does Chromesthesia impact daily life?

D has perfect pitch and thinks there could be a connection between this and her chromesthesia because of her color associations with each musical note. She can see colors with musical notes, even with her eyes closed. She calls the sensation “not something seen outside, like spots on a wall, but more internal” (Haack, Radocy). While chromesthesia can be a beautiful experience, it can also make some things hard to do. For D, she has encountered several challenges in her daily life as a result of her chromesthesia. For example attending light shows or other production where colors are programmed to music that conflict with her own associations causes her distress as she explained, “It bothers me intensely… I feel it in my chest mostly. It’s like a reverberation” (Haack, Radocy). D also felt pressured by art teachers to use her chromesthesia to influence her paintings stating, “I didn’t feel good about it; I felt pressured. The paintings were abstracts; I was not pleased with them" (Haack, Radocy). D further feels exhausted after listening to music for a long time such as at concerts or other music events. She explains her chromesthesia as “a handicap when I listen to music because I constantly listen for the individual tones themselves. Rather than listening to the overall thing, I dissect it… into notes and colors"(Haack, Radocy). D cannot block the color experience when listening to music and therefore must find either avoid or endure the challenges associated with her chromesthesia.

What Causes Chromesthesia, and Synesthesia in general?

No definitive answer, but there are several theories:

Chromesthesia and other forms of Synesthesia can be learned from associations formed as a child; for instance associations of sounds made by toys or the color of toys. It can also be genetic as there is associations of multiple people in the same family having some form of synesthesia.

It can also occur after a brain injury. There was a case study of one man who experienced synesthesia for the first time a few months after a stroke that was “caused as his brain tried to repair itself after his stroke and got cross-wired”.

Synesthesia can further be induced by drugs. For instance, the drug opium was used frequently in 18th-century England as a remedy for sleep problems, fatigue, and depression, but was found to cause synesthetic experiences.

Neurological Basis of Synesthesia / Chromesthesia:

Synesthesia is defined as “an experience in which stimulation in one sensory or cognitive stream leads to associated experiences in a second, unstimulated stream” (Hubbard). The stimulus that elicits a synesthetic experience is called the inducer and the additional sensations generated by that stimulus are called concurrents. Inducers and concurrents are represented in the forms of X n Y for various forms of synesthesia, with X representing the inducer and Y representing the concurrent. For chromesthesia, X is music and Y is color association. Data suggests that forms of synesthesia, including Chromesthesia, that are elicited through "anomalous activation of color-selective areas" could be caused from hyper binding done by the parietal cortex (Hubbard). This means that synesthesia occurs through activation of areas of the brain that interpret color through the parietal cortex.

It is known that people who have synesthesia have “increased communication between sensory regions” in the brain, but a definitive cause of synesthesia is still unknown and having synesthesia is rare (Brang, Ramachandran). Synesthesia only affects 2% - 4% of the population, and even fewer are affected by chromesthesia meaning there is not a large pool of people to study in order to find common casual factors of the experience (Brang, Ramachandran). This condition has been an area of interest to scientists for 200 years, and despite several studies suggesting that there is a strong genetic component to having synesthesia, the exact genes involved in the process and reasons why synesthesia is present in humans are still unknown, meaning the exact causes of the various forms of synesthesia are still a mystery (Brang, Ramachandran).

Symptoms of Synesthesia:

A symptom that characterizes synesthesia is that when a person perceives a physical stimulus such as the sight of a black letter A or the sound of a musical note, another involuntary and consistent physical stimulus is produced that is not typically produced from the stimulus. For example, a person with grapheme-color synesthesia will experiences a color when reading printed letters and numbers; or a person with chromesthesia will experience a color when hearing a musical note. There are also forms of synesthesia where people experience a certain taste from the sight of a word or letter.

The main symptom of Chromesthesia is experiencing a certain color when hearing different musical notes or songs

How is this condition treated?

This condition cannot be treated. People who have chromesthesia or other forms of synesthesia just go about their lives with it, and many do not realize until they are young adults that not everyone experiences the world in the way they do. Some enjoy having it, while others find it debilitating and avoid experiences that induce it.

What D's case suggests about normal brain function:

Normal brain function does not elicit more than one sense from a physical stimulus. This literature review shows that the case study of the middle-aged woman, D, being able to see colors when she hears music is rare and that her form of synesthesia, chromesthesia, occurs because there is increased communication of sensory regions of her brain. This literature review brings to mind that D’s interest in art and music as a child and her perfect pitch could suggest that her chromesthesia was learned because no one else in her family has it and she never suffered from any traumatic brain injury. It also sheds light on the fact that there is no treatment for synesthesia, and that the negative side effects of D’s chromesthesia, such as feeling overwhelmed or exhausted by music, cannot be treated.

What is considered “normative” in behaviors indicated by a religious tradition?

Synesthetic experiences are normal in the Catholic tradition as there are several forms of Synesthesia and color associations presented throughout the bible and in practices of the church.

Color Associations in the Bible

Color is used in the bible to make distinctions between good and evil and to express qualities of God. It is believed that "light or white is good and the darkness is evil; that is why men were given the revelation and colors came to the world; that is, blue, red and yellow" (Calvo, 69). These primary colors which are the basis of all other colors are used to express the Holy Trinity, which is the basis of the Catholic faith. The color blue represents the Father and "spiritually signifies the Healing Power of God" (Olesen). Blue is "the most sublime" because it biblically represent the word of God and God's power as it is the color of the sky and the seas (Olsen). Red represents the Son who is the link between heaven and earth. Red is the color of flesh and signifies Jesus becoming man and dying to save humans from sin (Olsen). Yellow represents the Holy Spirit which is associated with the light of fire and the purification process that comes with it (Olsen).

List of colors and their meanings in the bible:

  • White – light, righteousness, holiness, triumph
  • Black – darkness, evil, sin, death, mourning
  • Blue – almighty Father, Heaven, authority
  • Red – blood of Jesus, love of God, salvation
  • Yellow – faith and glory of God, joy

Examples of Synesthesia in the bible

Synesthesia is presented throughout the bible as a way to explain the presence of God. Human senses in the bible are related to each other in the bible in ways that are not normally seen in everyday life. For example, in Exodus 20:8, Moses and his followers hear visions and see the voice of God at Mount Sinai as Moses received the ten commandments. Through this interaction with God, Moses and his followers felt sensory experiences that are not normally elicited from hearing and seeing. Synesthesia is further used in several bible verses to explain the relationship between humans and God. In Psalm 34:8, it is stated “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him”, and in Psalm 119:103, it is stated "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Synesthesia is used to express how God can be experienced in multiple different ways through the human senses, including through combing senes that are not normally related such as being able to taste words and goodness.

Synesthesia in the practices and teachings of the church

“That which we taste, touch, see, hear and even smell can begin to take on sacramental dimensions.” - Tim Dearborn page 49 "Taste and See"

Synesthesia is not only present in the words of the bible, but also in the practices and teaching of the church. Incense is a powder that is burned so its smoke can be spread around the alter during mass. It's smell represents prayers of the faithful rising up to heaven. Furthermore, The Holy Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, represents different ways in which a person can experience God. God can be felt in all ways; you can hear, feels, taste, and see his presence in various forms. From this basis of knowledge, it can be said that Jesus is a form of synesthesia of God because he is a form of God that was experienced through the various senses of humans in the physical world when he became man and in a different way than God had been experienced before, just as Chromesthesia allows humans to experience music in a different way than others. In addition, there is music played during mass which is meant to call on the Holy Spirit, and for someone with chromesthesia, this could create a whole new religious experience that those without chromesthesia cannot experience.

Famous Musicians who have Chromesthesia:

Top row: Frank Ocean, Alessia Cara, Lorde / Bottom row: Billie Eilish, Pharrell Williams

Works Cited

BlondeRJ, /. “Synesthetic Bible Verses.” Blonde RJ, 5 Aug. 2014, blonderj.wordpress.com/tag/synesthetic-bible-verses/.

Brang, David, and V. S. Ramachandran. “Survival of the Synesthesia Gene: Why Do People Hear Colors and Taste Words?” PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, 22 Nov. 2011, journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001205.

Calvo Ivanovic I., (2018) "Symbolic Color Associations in Goethe’s Farbenlehre and its application in the pictorial work of its early receptors’", Cultura e Scienza del Colore - Color Culture and Science Journal, 09,pp. 65-73, DOI: 10.23738/ccsj.i92018.07

Finlay, Robert. “Weaving the Rainbow: Visions of Color in World History.” Journal of World History, vol. 18, no. 4, University of Hawai’i Press, 2007, pp. 383–431, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20079447.

Gordon, Eden Arielle. “15 Iconic Musicians with Synesthesia.” Popdust, 6 Jan. 2020, www.popdust.com/15-iconic-musicians-with-synesthesia-2643790427.html.

Haack, Paul A., and Rudolf E. Radocy. “A Case Study of a Chromesthetic.” Journal of Research in Music Education, vol. 29, no. 2, July 1981, pp. 85–90, doi:10.2307/3345016.

Hubbard, Edward M. “Neurophysiology of Synesthesia.” Current Psychiatry Reports, U.S.National Library of Medicine, 9 June 2007, https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11920-007-0018-6.pdf.

Olesen, Jacob. “Biblical Meaning of Colors.” Color Meanings, 3 Oct. 2021, www.color-meanings.com/biblical-meaning-colors/.

Seaberg, Maureen. “Synesthesia's Links to the Mystical.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 15 Jan. 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sensorium/201301/synesthesias-links-the-mystical-0.

“Second Known Case of Patient Developing Synesthesia after Brain Injury.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 30 July 2013, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130730101744.htm.

St. Michael's Hospital. "Second known case of patient developing synesthesia after brain injury." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 30 July 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130730101744.htm>.

Vendler, Zeno. “Goethe, Wittgenstein, and the Essence of Color.” The Monist, vol. 78, no. 4, Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 391–410, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27903447.

Watson, Kathryn. “Synesthesia: Definition, Examples, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 24 Oct. 2018, www.healthline.com/health/synesthesia#:~:text=There's%20no%20treatment%20for%20synesthesia,condition%20isolates%20them%20from%20others.

Witthoft, Nathan, and Jonathan Winawer. “Learning, Memory, and Synesthesia.” Psychological Science, vol. 24, no. 3, Mar. 2013, pp. 258–265, doi:10.1177/0956797612452573.

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