Synesthesia

My history with interns isn’t the best (shout out, Llama!). I usually get annoyed that they can’t do what I ask them to do correctly, and I waste time trying to explain what I need when really it would be faster do just do it myself. A real nurturer and teacher, I am.

But that’s not really the point of this story. Every couple weeks an intern does what we’ve so brilliantly named “an intern presentation.” During this presentation they’re supposed to tell us something about themselves and relate it back to account planning (the job they're aspiring to get). The presentation today was totally nuts. Not the presentation itself – as they sometimes are – but the subject. This girl, Laura, has what’s called synesthesia. I don’t even know how to begin to explain it, so I’m depending on the ever-trusty Wikipedia definition:

Synesthesia is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.

Apparently there are several different variations of synesthesia, but in Laura’s case, letters and numbers are perceived as colors. As in every number and every letter in the alphabet is inextricably linked in her mind to a specific color. So when she spells her name, she sees color for every individual letter. And those colors never change. So to her, L is a specific hue of brown, A is lavendar, etc. The visual she used (which, interesting enough, is also straight from Wikipedia) was this: 

Just the way every letter and number is a different color, that's the way she thinks about letters and numbers. ALL THE TIME! But her colors would be completely unique when compared with another synesthete's. Does this make sense at all? This is soo hard to explain. And so incredibly strange. 

Here’s another example. There was a Mad Men poster in the conference room we were in (disclaimer: we’re not trying to act like we’re Sterling Cooper, AMC is just one of our clients). If you’re not familiar with Mad Men posters (and why would you be?), I’ll provide a little visual for reference. The colors in it are very clearly red, black, and white. Someone asked Laura what colors she saw when she looked at the poster, and although she sees that the colors are red, black, and white, she also sees yellow (for the M), lavendar (for the A…remember, just like in her name), etc. etc. etc. 

Is this not the most bizarre thing you’ve ever heard? We were all sitting there, completely dumbfounded, so I’m nearly positive this isn’t going to translate in writing. But I had to write about it anyway.

Next step? Read Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia. Totally intriguing.