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from the Let-me-put-my-glasses-on-so-I-can-hear-you-better dept.
[Editor's note: Synesthesia is "a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway."]
Nothing could be more intensely subjective or taken-for-granted than the ineffable way that each of us perceives the world. This is why many synaesthetes go through a lifetime without realising that their everyday sense experience is exceptional or strange. Those who do, report a moment of startled self-awareness when friends respond with an uncomprehending: ‘What do you mean, my name tastes of split-pea soup?’ Such eureka moments have grown increasingly common since the 1980s, when cognitive tests were first developed to judge the authenticity of the reports through to the mid-1990s, when brain scans and brain-wave measurements began tracking the physiology of synaesthesia’s various forms.
Writing in The Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia in 2013, Richard Cytowic, a neurologist and synaesthesia researcher at George Washington University, describes the ‘astonishment and enthusiasm’ reported by synaesthetes after tests validated that they weren’t ‘making it all up’.
http://aeon.co/magazine/psychology/are-we-all-born-with-synaesthesia/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 22 2015, @11:22AM
One of the major difficulties with this type of situation is that you've relied on your ability to remember things your entire life. No matter how good or bad your memory was, you had adapted to make the most out of it with minimal effort. Learning a different way without any practice or preparation is very hard.
I had a minor stroke back in '98. It took away almost every memory I had, including my childhood, my education, all of the books I'd read, movies I'd seen, etc. The one thing that I didn't lose was my memory of music (the brain is a funny thing). Work wise I was back at square one. I had to learn how to program all over again. It took a while just to be able to remember something I'd read the previous day. Eventually it got good enough that I could really start studying again. It took a few years for me to be able to work as a programmer again, but at least I still had the 100's of comp-sci & programming books stuffed away in boxes. Without the books I already had I wouldn't have had any idea what I used to know or where to start.
Learning how to remember again, or how to learn again, is a seemingly insurmountable task. It takes time and effort. To quote the chief Lone Watie in 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', "Endeavor to persevere".
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday January 22 2015, @11:42AM
Amazing story. Did you ever regain any of the lost memories (childhood etc) or can you only replace them by re-learning things?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 22 2015, @12:18PM
The lost memories are completely gone. Occasionally a fragment of something will pop into my head that I think happened when I was younger. I'll make a note of it and then ask someone who might know if I was ever in that situation or if it was even feasible.
Some things, like reading music, I've never been able to re-learn. I still seem to have some visual issues (almost like dyslexia, but not exactly). No more looking at something once and memorizing it. Other things, like learning directions, birthdays, etc come naturally. Sometimes I can recognize someone I've met but I can't really remember where I know them from or why I know them (this still pisses off my brother's ex-wife). I ran into someone I thought I knew at the grocery store once and spoke with them for several minutes but had no idea who they actually where (it was my mailman).
Sometimes I stumble across something that I did years ago and had no idea. It's like discovering pieces of my own secret life before the stroke.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday January 22 2015, @01:00PM
Thanks for answering my question. Well done for putting your life back together after suddenly losing something so important, that most people just take for granted. It must be tough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 23 2015, @12:15AM
Thanks. I'd like to take full credit for it, but honestly my body just figured out how to make things right. Intellectually, I was pretty much just a bystander