10 Types of Synesthesia (Examples, Causes, and Symptoms)

06/09/21 • 42 min

With so many types of synesthesia out there, it can be hard to understand exactly what it is.

That’s why it’s important to look at the word itself first:

It shares a root with anesthesia. This word means “no sensation.”

“Syn” means that something is joined or coupled together. Thus, synesthesia means the joining or coupling of two or more sensations.

And because many different kinds of sensations can be joined, that’s why there are so many synesthesia types.

On this page, we’ll go through the definitions of each one. You’ll discover specific examples and interesting tidbits from scientific research.

That way, you can leave with the fullest possible understanding of this condition. You might even be able to invoke it too using a resource I’ll share below.

Let’s get started.

The 10 Types of Synesthesia (with Examples, Causes, and Symptoms)

In his book on the topic, neurologist Richard E. Cytowic states that approximately 4% of the population experience some form of synesthesia.

Exactly how long people experience their synesthesia is unknown, but many seem to drift in and out of it.

In Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia, Cytowic and his co-authors David Eagleman and Dmitri Nabokov found that evolutionary pressures may shape when and for how long a synesthesia condition affects people.

The condition also tends to be unidirectional. As they point out, a person might experience the letter J as blue. However, seeing blue does not cause them to think about the letter J or experience “J-ness.”

Most forms of synesthesia belong roughly to what some people call “Projection Synesthesia.” That is, something in the brain causes their minds to project senses that aren’t there for the rest of us. Often they tend to involve colors.

So with these aspects in mind, let’s dig into as many types of synesthesia as we can.

One: Colored Days of the Week

Here’s how Daniel Tammet discusses his birthday:

“I was born on January 31, 1979 — a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue.”

In his book, Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Aspergers and an Extraordinary Mind, Tamet says that Tuesday is a “warm color” and Thursday is “fuzzy.”

This lack of specificity for some days of the week should remind us of the consistency issue raised by Cytowic. Or it’s possible that some days have substances for Tamet rather than colors.

Is this the same as associating numbers with colors. Not necessarily. For that we need to learn more about our next type.

Two: Grapheme Color Synesthesia

When you see or think about the letter “A,” does it have a color? For some people it does. Likewise with numbers.

Some people will read letters and numbers and see them as colors. Others with grapheme color synesthesia will see letters and numbers as black marks on white paper but think about them as colors.

In The Frog Who Croaked Blue: Synesthesia and the Mixing of the Senses, Jamie Ward gives a list of letter-color associations from two research participants.

It is interesting that different people experience these letters in different ways. This suggests just as much nurture in the development of this form of synesthesia as nature.

Three: Chromesthesia

Chromesthesia, or colored hearing, means that the individual experiences colors connected with sounds.

Researchers have found that sounds can trigger more than colors as well. A person with this condition might hear music and experience shapes, landscapes or textures.

Composers who may have drawn upon this type of synesthesia include Franz Liszt and Jean Sibelius.

Four: Ordinal Linguistic Personification

In this manifestation of synesthesia, the individual will experience numbers, days, months and multiple kinds of words and things as if they were people.

For example, the word “camping” might be experienced as having a gender and a tendency towards grumpiness. A stick on the street might seem to the individual as a happy young man.

In many ways, this synesthesia condition is a lot like how kids play with objects to keep themselves entertained.

Five: Mirror Touch

With so many types of synesthesia out there, it can be hard to understand exactly what it is.

That’s why it’s important to look at the word itself first:

It shares a root with anesthesia. This word means “no sensation.”

“Syn” means that something is joined or coupled together. Thus, synesthesia means the joining or coupling of two or more sensations.

And because many different kinds of sensations can be joined, that’s why there are so many synesthesia types.

On this page, we’ll go through the definitions of each one. You’ll discover specific examples and interesting tidbits from scientific research.

That way, you can leave with the fullest possible understanding of this condition. You might even be able to invoke it too using a resource I’ll share below.

Let’s get started.

The 10 Types of Synesthesia (with Examples, Causes, and Symptoms)

In his book on the topic, neurologist Richard E. Cytowic states that approximately 4% of the population experience some form of synesthesia.

Exactly how long people experience their synesthesia is unknown, but many seem to drift in and out of it.

So with these aspects in mind, let’s dig into as many types of synesthesia as we can.

One: Colored Days of the Week

Here’s how Daniel Tammet discusses his birthday:

“I was born on January 31, 1979 — a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue.”

In his book, Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Aspergers and an Extraordinary Mind, Tamet says that Tuesday is a “warm color” and Thursday is “fuzzy.”

This lack of specificity for some days of the week should remind us of the consistency issue raised by Cytowic. Or it’s possible that some days have substances for Tamet rather than colors.

Is this the same as associating numbers with colors. Not necessarily. For that we need to learn more about our next type.

Two: Grapheme Color Synesthesia

When you see or think about the letter “A,” does it have a color? For some people it does. Likewise with numbers.

Some people will read letters and numbers and see them as colors. Others with grapheme color synesthesia will see letters and numbers as black marks on white paper but think about them as colors.

In The Frog Who Croaked Blue: Synesthesia and the Mixing of the Senses, Jamie Ward gives a list of letter-color associations from two research participants.

It is interesting that different people experience these letters in different ways. This suggests just as much nurture in the development of this form of synesthesia as nature.

Three: Chromesthesia

Chromesthesia, or colored hearing, means that the individual experiences colors connected with sounds.

Researchers have found that sounds can trigger more than colors as well. A person with this condition might hear music and experience shapes, landscapes or textures.

Composers who may have drawn upon this type of synesthesia include Franz Liszt and Jean Sibelius.

Four: Ordinal Linguistic Personification

In this manifestation of synesthesia, the individual will experience numbers, days, months and multiple kinds of words and things as if they were people.

For example, the word “camping” might be experienced as having a gender and a tendency towards grumpiness. A stick on the street might seem to the individual as a happy young man.

In many ways, this synesthesia condition is a lot like how kids play with objects to keep themselves entertained.

Five: Mirror Touch

Previous Episode

Better Than The Memory Palace? A Discussion With Dr. David Reser

Tell me if this sounds like clickbait?

“Ancient Australian Aboriginal Memory Tool Superior to ‘Memory Palace’ Learning”

I mean, I thought so too.

Must be click bait.

I grew even more concerned when Dominic O’Brien tweeted a Neuroscience article and added this statement:

“In short, Link or Story Method combined with Journey Method provide the optimum learning strategy.”

With all due respect to Dominic and acknowledgement of his great accomplishments and wonderful books, this is not precisely what the Neuroscience article says.

Nor is it what the full study says.

Neither the media report or the study even contain the word “Journey.”

An Opportunity For The “Pause” Button

Now, because I’m human too, I decided not to battle about this on Twitter. As you know, Angry Birds just ain’t my schtick.

In fact, I simply retweeted Dominic’s statement with a link to the original study.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkDgT6_sNJQ

And with sincere humility, let me offer this:

For a memory expert to... shall we say... shape what a study says by promoting it with a quasi-branded term like “Journey Method” should be a wake up call to the human and humanness in us all.

Because as educators, it’s normal to get excited by anything in the world of science that validates what we’ve been saying all along. I’m sure in haste I’ve done something like that too, and in this fast paced world, probably will again.

All the more reason that we must be on our guard and seek to go beyond the headlines and the tweets.

To temper ourselves so that we can truly learn from the research, and hopefully improve how we teach and learn, while avoiding getting territorial in ways that risk placing borders on the wonder.

Territorialism Over Terminology

Because frankly, I noted a small tremor of territorialism in myself at the idea that something could be better than the Memory Palace.

And that happened to me even though I often remind you that this term is just a word for location-based mnemonics, and nothing more.

Knowing that there must be more to this study than anyone could hope to convey in a tweet, I read the full paper myself. And to get even more detail, I reached out to Dr. David Reser at Monash university.

As a neuroscientist with interests in attention, consciousness and many aspects of education, Dr. Reser is the head author on the study that several dozen people have emailed me about since the story broke.

What Does The Study Actually Say?

First off, it’s important that you read it yourself.

The study is called:

“Australian Aboriginal techniques for memorization: Translation into a medical and allied health education setting.”

It turns out, the medical and health education setting matter a great deal. And there are several more nuances that make this study very, very interesting.

For example:

A particular story was important to the study
Student preparedness and preexisting learning experiences may be key to learning faster
Having a teacher in the learning space with the students was important
The Aboriginal approach is shown to have helped the individuals remember the order better
More research on long term comparisons with the Method of Loci and the Aboriginal technique are required

These are just my tentative bullet points for the time being.

Frankly, Dr. Reser is so good at explaining the science, I really hope you’ll dive into the full conversation.

This Actually Could Be “Better” Than The Memory Palace Technique

For now, I’m happy to say this:

If all of us educators and students can get on the same page, share these findings around and collaborate with those members in the Aboriginal community who hold knowledge we should be very excited about...

Why then, there might just be something many magnitudes of better, better than whatever you want to call the memory techniques you currently use.

But we do have to pay the price of attending to accuracy.

With care and accuracy in mind, I’m grateful Dr. Reser spent this time with us to discuss the study, the nature of its implications and what w...