One-shot Synesthesia

Abstract

Synesthesia is commonly thought to be a phenomenon of fixed associations between an outside inducer and a vivid concurrent experience. Hence, it has been proposed that synesthesia occurs due to additional connections in the brain with which synesthetes are born. Here we show that synesthesia can be a much richer and more flexible phenomenon with a capability to creatively construct novel synesthetic experiences as events unfold in people's lives. We describe here cases of synesthetes who occasionally generate novel synesthetic experience, called one-shot synesthesias. These synesthetic experiences seem to share all the properties with the classical synesthetic associations except that they occur extremely rarely, people recalling only a few events over the lifetime. It appears that these one-shots are not created at random but are instead responses to specific life events. We contrast the properties of those rare synesthetic events with other, more commonly known forms of synesthesia that also create novel synesthetic experiences, but at a high rate-sometimes creating novel experiences every few seconds. We argue that one-shot synesthesias indicate that synesthetic associations are by their nature not prewired at birth but are dynamically constructed through mental operations and according to the needs of a synesthetic mind. Our conclusions have implications for understanding the biological underpinnings of synesthesia and the role the phenomenon plays in the lives of people endowed with synesthetic capacities.

Keywords: Experience; Ideasthesia; Semantics; Synesthesia.

Figure 1

Graphical illustration of a one-shot synesthetic experience reported by M. H. The illustration shows the spatial position and extent of the synesthetic experience in relation to the position of the synesthete’s body.

Figure 2

Graphical illustration of a one-shot synesthetic experience reported by A. K.—a yellow cube named “Who is this person?”

Figure 3

Graphical illustrations of one-shot synesthetic experiences reported by J. S. A) A shoebox with a narrow cylinder. B) A hollow piece of glass.

Figure 4

Average scores obtained on a semantical differential scale for two groups of synesthetes. For each pair of opposing poles (e.g., vivid/unclear) the left one is associated with negative values on the scale (e.g., vivid) and the right one with the positive values (e.g. unclear).