Tannykins

Hi all!
I am looking for people who are both deaf and have synaesthesia, and who may be willing to take part in research that I am doing for my final year dissertation in psychology.

In particular I am looking for people who have experiences when signing or speech reading, or feel that their synaethesia has helped/affected or is related to their being deaf in any way.

My supervisor is a top researcher in synaesthesia ( I am honoured!) , who has done a lot of research in this area, which is growing and helping us to understand more about the mechanisms of our senses and how they work together.
This link offers more information- it's my supervisors site: Synaesthesia Research

Synaesthesia is basically where people experience 'extra' senses, when most people do not, such as seeing colour when hearing/seeing words/numbers/days/months, tasting shapes when eating food, tasting words either through hearing or reading them. These experiences are natural and not imagined, they just are, and people who have them believe that everyone has this wonderful condition! Unfortunately we don't!

Please get in contact if you would like to know more, or if you believe you have synaesthesia and want to share your experiences. At this point I am wanting to know about people's experiences informally and there is no obligation to take part in research, that's totally your choice!

Please feel free to Pm or email if you would prefer.

Thanks,

Tanya

PS I am a hearie and I don't have synaesthesia!

Deafness

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hohDougRN

Synaesthesia is such a peculiar condition, I don't know whether it would be thought of as a good or a bad thing to experience. It is fascinating how the sensory areas of brain can be linked in a way to associate sounds with colors or words, or blind being able to paint works of art and have mental image of depth perception and translate it into a way on paper or canvase. I am not synaesthetic although it I am intregued by the mechanisms of the brain and it's capabilities.

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Doug

Tannykins

Hi ya Doug,

I agree with you! It is an interesting condition for sure. Many synaesthetes do enjoy having it and see it as a positive thing. For some it can enhance their maths, (some people have what is called spatial number lines, where they have numbers in front of them, so it helps with calculations) and some it can help with learning new languages ( people who see, read or hear coloured letters and words can associate new sounds in languages and learn better this way).

Many synaesthetes say that they wouldn't be without their synaesthesia, as they enjoy having it.
There are times though that synaesthesia can be negative- a guy who has tastes when he hears or reads words can have some odd tastes that aren't nice and it can interfer when he is driving! When he reads road signs he gets flavours and then he misses which direction he needed to go in, because they overpower him! But even he wouldn't get rid of his syn (if he could, but he can't!)

There is also a blind guy who can see colours in repsonse to days of the weeks and numbers. It is truly amazing what the brain can do!

Buffalo

Tannykins;

Would you tell us about it after your research? I have heard of synaesthesia and I didn't think of how it would affect a deaf person until your post. I would be very interested in how it affects a deaf person. I hope you do find some deaf people with synaesthesia.

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“The problem is not that the (deaf) students do not hear. The problem is that the hearing world does not listen. “- Rev Jesse L. Jackson ( American Civil Rights Activist, Minister)

Tannykins

Hi Buffalo,

I would be delighted to share it all! At the moment a couple of hearing impaired (their choice of words, mainly as they are losing their hearing, or aren't totally deaf/one ear) people have been in touch with some of their experiences.

It's great to know people's experiences as you get a full picture of what could be going on, and the possibilities of links appear- although I don't have enough people at present to jump to any conclusions!

I am in the early stages, speaking/writing to people so there isn't anything concrete yet, but I will let you know if anything happens!

Thanks for your support

Tanya

hohDougRN

Have you checked with dept at Cambridge or Oxford, they might be able to give you direction for this dissertation

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Doug

Tannykins

Hi Doug!

Everything is worth a try! I am not sure if those universities specialise in synaesthesia, I am not aware of any researchers at these places, but will look them up. All suggestions are good!

Tannykins

Hey all!

Thought I would post again to say that I am still looking for people with synaesthesia, particular those who can see colours when they sign/lip read.

Hope you are all well,
Tanya

Tousi

How often does this occur in the population?

Tannykins

Hello,

Synaesthesia as a whole affects 10-20% of the population. This particular syn, with coloured signing is unknown, although roughly less than 1% I would say.

NorCal20

[stratches on my head]

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hohDougRN

I don't know clinically if I ever even hear of d/hoh who has synaesthesia with colors and sign/lipreading. Now THAT would be an interesting find. I find it difficult to believe 10-20% of population have synaesthesia, I though it was much more unique than that prevalence. A person can be trained or even classically conditioned to have a synaesthetic relation with things- but this would be extremely limited to specific topics, words, signs, letters or numbers. One can even have a type of hypnotic synaesthetic tendency programed to an extent. An individul with an "absolute" synaesthesia will unversally have it with all aspects of both concurrent sense acting together with no control and with all aspects of words, signs, numbers, letters, sounds etc etc.

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Doug

deafdyke

What about experiancing "sound" more as a visual/tactile experiance? Due to the nature of my loss (conductive) my "hearing" is prolly not what a hearing person would think of as hearing. I've always wanted to have one of those scans that show which part of the brain processes a sense.
Have you ever read "An Anthropologist on Mars?" (Oliver Sacks) There's a neat story in there about a blind guy who had surgery to become sighted, and he could see, but it wasn't the way sighted people think of when they think of sight.

Tannykins

Hi all!

Yes aparantly 10-20% of the population are thought to have 'real' syneasthesia! There are some studies that have looked into this, but of course there could be many more done and the numbers may change!

Sound--->visual/tactile does happen also. Basically any additional sense that most people do not feel is classed as synaesthesia. This is a simple explanantion, but for example, for some people who hear music can see colours from it and they are always the same when it's always the same pitch.

I haven't read the book , but I have certainly heard of Oliver Sacks and what he has writen about- very interesting stuff!

On another note, is it possible to sign non-words at all? For example can one make up a sign that means nothing? Or will a person proficient in SL always try to relate it to something and assume it's a different dialect?

I ask ,as I am thinking about adding SL non-words into my study to test synaesthetes who see colours when they sign. Non-words are used in studies with the writen word, like 'blik', or 'gnuy' for example, which can help us understand a bit more (depending on what is studied of course!). I wondered if this was possible to do in SL, without finger spelling at all?

defgrl

I have what is called "cortical" hearing impairment. For me, to "hear" is to feel vibrations on my eardrums. It is a "subset" of the tactile (touch) sense. Sometimes smell/taste merge. Lights have rhythms. Yet I can "pass" for a Hearing person to a large extent. I have a "genius IQ." I grew up in a Hearing family, with English as my first language. But, somehow, Sign has become my primary language. I am a polyglot. (But I READ the languages.) My world is largely visual-spatial. I also have neurological disabilities.

sara1981

i told my mom about that words and my mom says i dont have that!

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Tannykins

Hi defgl and Sara!

Defgl you have some stuff going on there! Lights have rhythms? What happens there then? You think all you experience has helped you be a polygot?

Sara- you are not alone, I dont have synaestheisa neither! I would like to though!