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Grapheme → color synesthesia is a form of synesthesia where an individual's perception of numbers and letters are associated with the experience of colors. Like all forms of synesthesia, grapheme → color synesthesia is involuntary, consistent, and memorable. Grapheme → color synesthesia is one of the most common forms of synesthesia, and because of the extensive knowledge of the visual system, one of the most studied.

While no two synesthetes will report the same colors for all letters and numbers, studies of large numbers of synesthetes find that there are some commonalities across letters (e.g., A is likely to be red).<ref name="Day2005">Day, S.A. (2005), "Some Demographic and Socio-cultural Aspects of Synesthesia" in L. Robertson & N. Sagiv, ed., Synesthesia: Perspectives from Cognitive Neuroscience, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-516623-X, pp. 11-33</ref><ref name = "SimnerWard2005">Simner, J., Ward, J. & Lanz, M., et al. (2005), "Non-random associations of graphemes to colours in synaesthetic and non-synaesthetic populations", Cognitive Neuropsychology, vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 1069-1085</ref> Early studies argued that grapheme → color synesthesia was not due to associative learning, such as from playing with colored refrigerator magnets<ref name="RamaHubbard2001">Ramachandran, V.S. & Hubbard, E.M. (2001), "Synaesthesia: A window into perception, thought and language", Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 8, no. 12, pp. 3-34</ref>. However, one recent study has documented a case of synesthesia in which synesthetic associations could be traced back to colored refrigerator magnets.<ref name="WittWin2005">Witthoft, N. & Winawer, N. (2006), "Synesthetic colors determined by having colored refrigerator magnets in childhood", Cortex, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 175-183.</ref> Despite the existence of this individual case, the majority of synesthetic associations do not seem to be driven by learning of this sort.<ref name = "SimnerWard2005" /><ref name = "Rich2006">Rich, A. N., Bradshaw, J. L. & Mattingley, J. B. (2005), "A systematic, large scale study of synaesthesia: Implications for the role of early experience in lexical-colour associations", Cognition, vol. 98, no. 1, pp. 53-84 </ref> Rather, it seems that more frequent letters are paired with more frequent colors, and some meaning based rules, such as ‘b’ being blue, drive most synesthetic associations.

[edit] Experiences and reports

Synesthetes often report that they were unaware their experiences were unusual until they realized other people did not have them, while others report feeling as if they had been keeping a secret their entire lives. Writer and synesthete Patricia Lynne Duffy remembers one early experience, "'One day,' I said to my father, 'I realized that to make an 'R' all I had to do was first write a 'P' and then draw a line down from its loop. And I was so surprised that I could turn a yellow letter into an orange letter just by adding a line.'"<ref>Duffy, Patricia. Quote from Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens (W. H. Freeman; 2001). Retrieved on 2006-09-28.</ref>

Another grapheme → color synesthete reports, "I often associate letters and numbers with colors. Every digit and every letter has a color associated with it in my head. Sometimes, when letters are written boldly on a piece of paper, they will briefly appear to be that color if I'm not focusing on it. Some examples: "S" is red, "H" is orange, "C" is yellow, "J" is yellow-green, "G" is green, "E" is blue, "X" is purple, "I" is pale yellow, "2" is tan, "1" is white. If I write SHCJGEX it registers as a rainbow when I read over it, as does ABCPDEF."<ref>Slashdot Discussion (2006-02-19). Retrieved on 2006-08-14.</ref>

[edit] Further research

Individuals with grapheme → color synesthesia rarely claim that their sensations are problematic or unwanted. In some cases, individuals report useful effects, such as aid in memory or spelling of difficult words.

I sometimes use my synaesthesia to help me remember difficult proper names. Here's a Thai chef who wrote a terrific vegetarian cookbook [these letters appear in a distinct pattern for Cassidy]:

• Vatcharin Bhumichitr

Unfortunately, this method can backfire too, because I confuse similarly-colored names easily [the following names appear very similarly colored to Cassidy]:

• Mike
• Dave
• Dan
• Rob

This is especially problematic at parties.

—Cassidy Curtis, "Letter-Color Synaesthesia"<ref>Curtis, Cassidy. Letter-Color Synaesthesia. Retrieved on 2006-08-15.</ref>

These experiences have led to the development of technologies intended to improve the retention and memory of graphemes by individuals without synesthesia. Computers, for instance, could use "artificial synesthesia" to color words and numbers to improve usability.<ref name = "Plouznikoff2005">Plouznikoff, N., Plouznikoff, A. & Robert, J.-M. (2005), "Artificial Grapheme-Color Synesthesia for Wearable Task Support", Ninth IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, pp. 108-113</ref>

[edit] References and notes