whether or not all disorders are pure
disorders and cannot be gifts at all has
always been controversial I mean have
you ever smelled colors or perhaps
tasted musical notes or has reminder for
generated colors beyond the visible
spectrum well if you get really tainted
these you my friend have synesthesia
my name is hua sutras Nadi and I a
fellow sinister will be discussing this
disorder synesthesia and how it proves
that not all disorders are pure
disorders for they could have strengths
as well
what is synesthesia synesthesia is when
the stimulation of one sense
automatically triggers another for
example when a synesthete hears the
sound which appeals to his or her
auditory sense this synesthesia is able
to taste that sound or a musical note
now this is just one example another
example could be maybe you smell a
certain smell and colors pop up let’s
say you smell cherries and Brown pops up
in your mind so the word sin means joint
anesthesia means senses therefore
together sin is synesthesia means join
senses now you’re probably wondering why
haven’t I heard about this before and
where did synesthesia come from now
because it’s really complex and rare and
only about 4% of the world has this even
so today scientists don’t really know
where I mean what really causes
synesthesia but a common theory is that
the neurons in your mind’s four
different senses are supposed to
separate like after four months so let’s
say this your hearing sense and this is
your tasting sense they’re supposed to
separate but for synesthetes they always
stick together that’s why when you hear
a sound you taste something and it’s
always automatic now genetics is the
people think genetics is the main reason
of where synesthesia came from and
because most of the theories involve
neurobiology and speaking of genetics
when I was younger my sister and I often
argued what color is the letter A what
color is the number 10 and obviously we
ended up in disagreement because for
synesthetes it’s always unique
so not only a synesthesia rare but
within within the four percent of the
population it’s unique so everyone
perceives things differently now there
are many types of synesthesia because
synesthesia is basically like I said
earlier the combination or two or more
senses crossing paths together this is
the most common form of synesthesia
called grapheme-color synesthesia this
is what I was born with and so for
example as you can see there a
non-synesthetes sees apple just apple
butter synesthesia or she sees it with
colors now it’s not a hallucination you
don’t actually like in your master so
you don’t actually see number five with
red for example but in your mind when
you think of five you think of red so if
you’re wondering this is how I view the
alphabetical letters and numbers as you
can see it’s really cultural and to tell
you the truth I can’t fully describe
what what like texture or even color it
is because sometimes my mind generates
its own color and so as much as I want
to explain to it I can’t
let’s see gee looks like a green there
but to be honest it’s it’ve a gray a bit
of a green like I just can’t explain it
and sometimes it’s also about texture
opacity and thickness so it’s not all
about colors and it’s always the same so
for me a is always a red B is always a
blue s is always school bus yellow never
anything else now this is how we view my
own name and as you can see it down
there only the capital letters are
colorized sometimes only like the
dominant letter comes up which is like
the capital letter in names and that’s
why sometimes I see the whole name in
colors sometimes I just see the first
capital letters so they’re two like yeah
about two types of grapheme-color
synesthetes sometimes you can actually
see the the colors on like let’s say
you’re a Baptist and sometimes it’s just
in your mind so this can actually help
you can easily identify what’s – and
what’s five there because of
grapheme-color synesthesia sometimes
your mind it sort of gives identity
towards numbers and letters so for
example for me the number nine is always
a female because for me it’s the color
pink and pink is like a feminine color
that’s why 9 is always a pink for me and
w like my own name is always light blue
in my mind so whenever I think of myself
or anybody with the name W or just a
letter W itself I think of youth now
this is because of a reason the graph
color synesthesia but what if you just
sort of like have like your mind just
randomly gives personalities or identity
number this is called ordinal linguistic
first sonification so this is basically
when your mind like let’s say number
five is a little boy who likes to wear
your caps for no reason it’s just how
your mind works
now another rare form is called lexical
gustatory synesthesia this is when you
hear a sound or word and you’re able to
taste it somewhat so for example maybe
the word dog tastes sour in your mouth
or I can say sweet depending on who you
are now an even rare form and a little
creepy form honestly it’s called
mirror-touch synesthesia this is when
you actually let’s say you see a person
getting touched on the shoulder and you
feel the exact sense a same sensation on
your shoulder isn’t that kind of creepy
and I’m actually glad I don’t actually
have this one so yeah a an even cooler
form and rare form is called spatial
sequence synesthesia this is when your
mind like like that guy over there you
project like a timeline around you so
that guy he sees January all the way
till December so this can actually
really a key in memorization and yeah
and even a rare form and really
interesting form is called time-space
synesthesia this is when your minds this
one’s really really hard to explain for
example like it’s basically your mental
calendar game is pretty strong like time
is all over your mind let’s say up here
there’s like a bird flying from 1981 and
over here is there a cup of coffee from
2001 and there’s like your desk from
1700s whatever you know and because
synesthesia is like living your life
through extraordinary ways there are
always advantages and disadvantages and
I’m going to talk about some from from
various types of synesthesia so let
start with a disadvantages first so one
of the most common forms of common
disadvantages is mind versus reality
comple so let’s say this guy here sees
would say a and blue but he’s like way
no that doesn’t make sense in my mind
it’s array so he knows it’s blue but he
argues it’s red which doesn’t make much
sense but that’s true another well
another disadvantage that synesthetes
tends to be bad at math
which might explain why underperforming
math sometimes of it for example two
plus three equals two five and four
since t if this could be like pink plus
three equals red and pink listener a
pink was blue equals red and pink was
blue is not red and maybe if he knows
the color theory red is a primary color
and you cannot form you cannot form red
out of anything because it’s a primary
color so this can like really make him
troubled in math so he can ask to take
that elimination factor first then
solves it that’s another disadvantage
and another disadvantage is like social
awkwardness you can actually start
disliking people just because you don’t
like their names or like I don’t like
Valerie because their names taste
horrible for example or you don’t like
some people because their the name gives
a bad color or a bad smell in your mouth
like Cooper I don’t know but one of the
most common disadvantages is over
sensation so imagine you’re in a fire
alarm situation and if you have this in
as the lexical gustatory synesthesia
imagine a mic hearing all those noises
and that triggers all those weird
sensations all over your mind that can
it be a problem especially when you’re
trying to escape a fire alarm or imagine
if you’re in a choir and there are lots
of different sounds there like violins
choirs or P or crowd singing or whatever
like all those different noises trigger
different sounds your mind and imagine
that over sensation in your mind or
maybe over sensation in your smell or
taste or whatever that can be disturbing
now another thing is called misophonia
and don’t worry this is a very rare form
but this actually this is pretty bad
this is where certain certain certain
sounds can trigger negative emotions
such as anxiety but like always there
are always advantages to everything and
a common stereotype is that synesthetes
are good at art which is yeah sort of
true I guess because synesthesia can
actually really help you with areas of
talent in art and to tell you the truth
the advantages actually outweigh the
advantages it does more good than harm
which I will go through so this is an
example of what synesthetes can paint so
let’s say you like this artist is
finished Eva what can they can do is
like you tell them a song like whatever
Taylor Swift Bieber whatever and they
can listen to it and all these colors
come up in their mind
and they actually draw it so these are
just some examples of what since these
draw based on hearing a song so this is
another advantage is the ability to
actually differentiate numbers and
letters easily this helps you with
spelling and memorization as well here’s
a photograph taken by Marcia’s my leg
so as crazy as the sound sounds she uses
her synesthesia to actually help her
it’s like she’s as it as a conscience to
guide her so what she did was she just
takes out her camera goes to the water
finds a reflection and she waits for
that perfect moment her synesthesia
tells sure this is the right moment so
she feels a sensation that’s when she
presses the her shutter and it results
in clear photos perfect pitch is a
common advantage of synesthesia this is
if you don’t know what that is perfect
pitches when you’re able to tell what
the notes are for a song without
actually looking at the sheets and for
synesthetes well if your synesthesia is
related to music it’s really easy
because let’s say you hear door a me you
don’t know it’s door in me but the color
is always red blue green for example and
because your – or it could be taste or
it could even be shapes or so whatever
whatever thing corresponds to your mind
let’s say dough is a circle red or
whatever so because you know that you
know it’s doremi instead of any other
things and obviously if this really
helps in making music and like I said
earlier composing music lots of famous
artists today like Hans Zimmer you know
the guy who does all those great films
Pharrell Williams Lord they all said
that synesthesia helps them create their
music because your mine associates
colors with let’s say sound I’m sorry
sounds with circles or shapes or colors
or whatever our taste it allows you to
explore the different areas easily it
allows you to really be creative and
experiment and discover more to your
full potential no memorization is
probably the most common advantages
because you always associate everything
with colors or anything else it’s easy
to memorize like for me it’s easy for me
to memorize like my phone number if I
get a new phone number or anything like
that because you can memorize it by
color or by taste or by sound but
there’s a really extraordinary story
about synesthesia and memorization and
that is the story of Danielle two men so
daniel cement has savant syndrome
and believe it or not this guy was able
to memorize twenty two thousand five
hundred and fourteen digits of you know
PI in mathematics in only five hours and
nine minutes and he claimed that this
was down to synesthesia and this guy has
about at least five different forms of
synesthesia and he claimed that when he
sees zero to nine they have distinct
distinct sizes and shapes in space and
this really allows him to memorize it
and I know you probably don’t get what
he means but this is what this is kind
of what he drew to explain to us so as
you can see here 53 times 131 is 69 6949
oh it’s you can’t calculate with your
mind but somehow he’s able to make that
shape and if you look at the shape it
actually complements each other all
those curls and all those circles and
this guy claims that every number he
sees has an homage Ender a personality a
texture a color and a size and shape and
that’s why it’s really easy for him to
help him and because of this he was able
to memorize PI all the way there so what
does this mean what is my point my point
is that synesthesia proves that not all
disorders are purely bad and in fact
with synesthesia sin there’s actually
more good than harm and many even like
for example autism there are many famous
people who had autism like Albert
Einstein’s Charles Darwin Isaac Newton
and they all end up successful and
synesthetes as well like Stevie Wonder
Bongo Hans Zimmer Marilyn Monroe
Pharrell Williams they all had
synesthesia and it really helped them
with their careers especially if your
careers in art now again it proves that
while you may be very bad and one thing
like while disorder may hold you back
significantly in one thing it can
provide you with a great advantage and
fire you to glory in another thing
because just as the great Albert Islands
Einstein said everyone is a genius but
if you judge a fish by its ability to
climb a tree it’ll live its whole life
thinking it’s stupid and so I think
calling synesthesia a disorder is really
it’s more like a paradox than an
accurate depiction because it does more
good than harm like all the advantages
outweigh the disadvantages and so
instead of calling it a disorder let’s
call it an extra order and who knows if
synesthesia I never existed
what achievements today would never have
been
chief my name is what sutra snidey and i
hope you enjoyed my god [Applause]