Post by jelle on Sept 2, 2017 15:56:01 GMT -5
Hey teatime , I think the study is still ongoing as they're looking at the genetic basis of synesthesia and it appears to be some kind of longitudinal thing (they just sent me another saliva kit). You can look at the official Synesthesia Battery here, or try it out yourself: www.synesthete.org. Also, you can read about the instruments here: www.synesthete.org/files/EaglemanetalSynesthesiaBattery2006.pdf.
I was actually going to come and correct my previous post as I had a look at some syntesthetes in a documentary and some did appear to be Ne-users, so I'm afraid I must've been self-confirming there haha! IRL conversations however, I've noticed only Ni/Se types seem to have this trait.
That being said, I think you have unwittingly supplied a bit of an answer to this disparity, in your answer: "Also, when I was younger I had a lot of synesthesia going on. Not so much now though."
This seems to be an excellent example of how that kind of abstract association for an Ne/Si person is experiential and an "Explorer" function, but not part of your ontology! The test battery above actually tests for consistency, and having had these associations (which manifest to the synesthete as almost preconscious), they don't really ever go way or change for me. I can choose the exact right colour most of the time even after several tries, because I know them, and have always known them. Controls, even when instructed to do so have immense difficulty with this task. That's not to say synesthesia matters at all to me or comes into play in my reasoning haha, it's just a funny anomaly to me. But it's good example, I think, of how Ni abstracting is foundational as opposed to exploratory Ne, or, not exactly the same as cases where it's artistic associations as with the Cohen brothers.
Here's a good breakdown of the difference in that case, or a quote if you don't feel like reading through the whole paper (though I thought it was an excellent literature review):
"First, it is essential to clarify what we mean by “synesthesia” and by “synesthetic art.” For the former term at least we can refer to a scientific definition. According to neurologist Richard Cytowic “Synesthesia (Greek, syn = together + aisthesis = perception) is the involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association. That is, the stimulation of one sensory modality reliably causes a perception in one or more different senses.”3 Cytowic goes on to state: “Its phenomenology clearly distinguishes it from metaphor, literary tropes, sound symbolism, and deliberate artistic contrivances that sometimes employ the term ‘synesthesia’ to describe their multisensory joinings.” Synesthetic art is a deliberate contrivance, a product of an artistic aspiration, and we should not confuse it with the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia. Persons, not artworks, are synesthetic. Ultimately there is no such thing as synesthetic art—but that has not stopped anyone from trying to create it. We use the term “synesthetic art” rather than something more precise such as “cross-modal art” because the idea of correspondences among the senses and their fusion into a whole experience has fueled the imagination of so many artists."
Actual synesthetic art would be quite boring I'd imagine LOL. Ne has a nice way of spinning things. Another interesting peripheral tidbit is that Helios' numbers 7, 8, and 9 look, act, and feel a lot like my 7, 8, 9 and I thought that was pretty cool, hehe
You can read more about synesthesia here:
drive.google.com/open?id=0B_UqkSgBPF2ERzNlR1gyT0lNenM
drive.google.com/file/d/0B_UqkSgBPF2EOEFDOXQta0UtUVk/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/0B_UqkSgBPF2ETmVEd2d5MlA1dE0/view?usp=sharing
One of the most interesting things about these is that we all seem to have some latent synesthesia -- but Ni/Se, I still think, might possibly more readily access this, as it's not buried so deeply in the rational mind. And so for a synesthete, it's not latent at all, and they can access that sort of thinking with ease.
I was actually going to come and correct my previous post as I had a look at some syntesthetes in a documentary and some did appear to be Ne-users, so I'm afraid I must've been self-confirming there haha! IRL conversations however, I've noticed only Ni/Se types seem to have this trait.
That being said, I think you have unwittingly supplied a bit of an answer to this disparity, in your answer: "Also, when I was younger I had a lot of synesthesia going on. Not so much now though."
This seems to be an excellent example of how that kind of abstract association for an Ne/Si person is experiential and an "Explorer" function, but not part of your ontology! The test battery above actually tests for consistency, and having had these associations (which manifest to the synesthete as almost preconscious), they don't really ever go way or change for me. I can choose the exact right colour most of the time even after several tries, because I know them, and have always known them. Controls, even when instructed to do so have immense difficulty with this task. That's not to say synesthesia matters at all to me or comes into play in my reasoning haha, it's just a funny anomaly to me. But it's good example, I think, of how Ni abstracting is foundational as opposed to exploratory Ne, or, not exactly the same as cases where it's artistic associations as with the Cohen brothers.
Here's a good breakdown of the difference in that case, or a quote if you don't feel like reading through the whole paper (though I thought it was an excellent literature review):
"First, it is essential to clarify what we mean by “synesthesia” and by “synesthetic art.” For the former term at least we can refer to a scientific definition. According to neurologist Richard Cytowic “Synesthesia (Greek, syn = together + aisthesis = perception) is the involuntary physical experience of a cross-modal association. That is, the stimulation of one sensory modality reliably causes a perception in one or more different senses.”3 Cytowic goes on to state: “Its phenomenology clearly distinguishes it from metaphor, literary tropes, sound symbolism, and deliberate artistic contrivances that sometimes employ the term ‘synesthesia’ to describe their multisensory joinings.” Synesthetic art is a deliberate contrivance, a product of an artistic aspiration, and we should not confuse it with the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia. Persons, not artworks, are synesthetic. Ultimately there is no such thing as synesthetic art—but that has not stopped anyone from trying to create it. We use the term “synesthetic art” rather than something more precise such as “cross-modal art” because the idea of correspondences among the senses and their fusion into a whole experience has fueled the imagination of so many artists."
Actual synesthetic art would be quite boring I'd imagine LOL. Ne has a nice way of spinning things. Another interesting peripheral tidbit is that Helios' numbers 7, 8, and 9 look, act, and feel a lot like my 7, 8, 9 and I thought that was pretty cool, hehe
You can read more about synesthesia here:
drive.google.com/open?id=0B_UqkSgBPF2ERzNlR1gyT0lNenM
drive.google.com/file/d/0B_UqkSgBPF2EOEFDOXQta0UtUVk/view?usp=sharing
drive.google.com/file/d/0B_UqkSgBPF2ETmVEd2d5MlA1dE0/view?usp=sharing
One of the most interesting things about these is that we all seem to have some latent synesthesia -- but Ni/Se, I still think, might possibly more readily access this, as it's not buried so deeply in the rational mind. And so for a synesthete, it's not latent at all, and they can access that sort of thinking with ease.