Could Synesthesia Be a Next Step in Human Evolution?
We assume that what goes on in our mind is the same for everyone else, but it's not.
Hiya!
In case you haven’t noticed, human evolution is a continual curiosity of mine. After all, we’re a unique species with countless unsolved mysteries. Science shows we’ve come a long way in understanding how we’ve evolved — inching our way from a single-celled organism to global domination — throughout millions of years. And throughout our quest for knowledge, many people have formed countless opinions, which continue today.
For instance, a while ago, I met a guy who firmly believes we’ve peaked, evolutionarily speaking, as a species. According to him, any changes that do occur will be of our own making in the form of technology or medical advancements. While I get where he’s coming from, I respectfully disagree.
In my opinion, humans are nowhere done evolving. In fact, we’ve already evolved quite a bit over the last few centuries — we’ve noticed some of these changes already, but others, I think, occurred under our radar. For instance, synaesthesia is a unique way to experience the world that only a few possess, but could it be another step in human evolution?
What is synaesthesia?
If you’re like me, then your five main senses — sight, taste, smell, sound, and touch — are separate and assigned to specific bodily functions. For instance, sounds are only heard by your ears, and colors are only seen by your eyes.
But for people born with synaesthesia (pronounced sinna-stee-zia), some of their senses are linked, or merged thanks to an increase of hyperconnectivity within their brain. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, synaesthesia is:
A condition in which someone experiences things through their senses in an unusual way. For example by experiencing a colour as a sound, or a number as a position in space.
The University of Sussex in the UK has an entire research department dedicated to studying synaesthesia. According to them, two of the most common forms are experiencing data and months in color — and days, months, numbers, and letters in the form of lines, circles, and spirals.
Total estimated combinations vary depending on the source, but some suggest over 300 different combinations of synaesthesia exist. Though, most can be divided into 5 to 10 groups of related kinds. However, most research done on the topic focuses on colors relating to numbers and letters.
While not all synaesthetes agree about which colors correspond to specific letters or numbers, the image below shows the most commonly reported pairings so far for English-speaking synaesthetes.
Sight is only one sense synaesthesia can affect, our sense of taste can also be strongly impacted. I don’t mean taste as in a literal flavor, like, the words cotton candy don’t taste like cotton candy (as far as I know).
Taste, in this sense, might be a change in temperature, a sensation at a specific location (like the back of the throat or edge of the tongue), and a textural experience within someone’s mouth in response to a word. Sometimes, specific tastes will produce color sensations. Here’s a cool article by the Independent where people with the ability share their experiences.
It’s thought that the first scientifically documented case of synaesthesia was by Georg Sachs in 1812 when he published a medical dissertation concerning his and his sister’s albinism. Even then, the topic wasn’t the paper’s focus, and since then, synaesthesia has been largely ignored until the last few decades.
How Common is Synaesthesia?
This is a little tricky to answer, but generally speaking, it appears synaesthesia is more common in children than adults. Scientists from the European Commission believe everyone is potentially born with some variation of synaesthesia. It appears to emerge around the age of four or five but decreases by age ten. It’s estimated that between 2 and 4.4 percent of the population retain the ability into adulthood — half of which are believed to have more than one version of synaesthesia.
Most research so far indicates that synaesthesia is hereditary and passed from parents to children, sometimes even skipping generations. Though at least one study on identical twins shows, there is more to synaesthesia than just genetics.
Initially, it was thought that women experience synaesthesia more often than men, but this was disproved in 2015. Similarly, some thought synaesthesia is more common in left-handed people, but this too was disproved. However, it does appear to be more common among people with autism, artists, and those in creative fields.
While it doesn’t seem that anyone can permanently develop synaesthesia, some chemical agents such as drug use — specifically LSD, magic mushrooms, and mescaline — do appear to induce synaesthetic experiences. Though it goes away once the drug wears off.
Pros and Cons
There are definite perks to synaesthesia, though they’re difficult to convey since there are so many variations and possible combinations. Not all synaesthetes are alike, which make them hard to compare.
Still, there are some noticeable perks, the biggest of which is a much better memory than those without the ability. Their mental imagery is also stronger, allowing them to better visualize in their heads. As mentioned before, too, synaesthetes are often more creative, specifically when it comes to combining different ideas into new ones.
Are there any cons, though? After all, to those of us with segregated senses, the idea of living with synaesthesia may seem chaotic or, at the very least, distracting. Though, when questioned, most synaesthetes report enjoying their ability and even feeling bad for people who don’t have it. A melting of senses is normal for them, and it would be weird not to experience it. Just another example of assuming what is normal for us is normal for others.
It’s a little ironic, dontcha think?
The emphasis we place on physical differences between humans while assuming we’re identical on the inside is a little ironic if you ask me. I mean, sexism and racism revolve around nothing more than physical appearance, which doesn’t accurately convey the intelligence nor character of a person.
Whereas little attention is paid to what happens out of sight — our beliefs, emotions, and how we (literally) view the world in our mind — all of which paint dramatic and far more accurate images of who we are as individuals, and really, as a species.
For most of history, it was assumed everyone — all colors and genders — is the same inside, at least for the most part. Only recently have scientists realized the danger this assumption has had, especially in the medical community regarding the exclusion of women and people of color during medical studies.
Anyway, my point is, while everyone has obsessed over judging people’s external appearances, little attention is given to the changes going on within — like potential indicators that humans aren’t done evolving.
We Need to Pay More Attention to the Inside
Take understanding our mind, for instance. The mind is a curious thing, and I find it utterly fascinating how purely subjective it is. In the sense that I will never truly know what it is like to be you — or you’ll never know what it’s like to be me — and neither will any other living thing on the entire planet, alive or dead. On some level, we know this. We may even say it’s obvious — of course I don’t know what it’s like to be you, because I’m me.
Yet, at the same time, we tend to behave as if everyone else is like us — we all have emotions, opinions, and beliefs — without remembering that how we experience these human traits vary drastically from person to person.
But what goes on inside of us is more than just our subjective life experiences and how they shape us. I’m talking about how we literally experience life, and the variations in how our minds work.
For instance, lots of people assume that because they have an ongoing-internal monologue talking to them in their heads, then everyone else does too. (I totally belonged to this group.) But the truth is, some people don’t experience internal monologues in their minds.
Aside from learning about mental illness and diseases, there hasn’t been much research about the differences in people’s experiences within their minds. We don’t even really have a vocabulary to describe our experiences and have a hard time conveying or explaining them. Like the internal monologue, most of us go through life assuming everyone else has one too. So how do we know what’s “normal”?
Perspective Shift
I noticed several suggestions while researching this newsletter that synaesthesia is a mental illness or disorder, and I want to be clear that it’s not. There is nothing “wrong” with the brains of people who have the ability. If anything, it seems to me that it may be more of an evolutionary advancement rather than a flaw or negative mutation during development.
After all, it’s only been a topic of discussion since the 1800s… perhaps something we’ve always had, but we’re only just becoming aware of it. Scientists have already discovered dozens, even hundreds, of ways synaesthesia presents itself. Could synaesthesia be the next phase of human mental evolution? A step away from the segregation of senses and toward a life of mixed senses and a new reality?
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