What is synesthesia?
Q: What is synesthesia?
A: Synesthesia, or synaesthesia, is a condition where the brain mixes up the senses. People who have synesthesia are called synesthetes.
Q: How is it inherited?
A: Synesthesia is usually inherited (called congenital synesthesia), but exactly how people inherit it is unknown.
Q: Can it be caused by other things besides genetics?
A: Yes, synesthesia can also be reported by people using psychedelic drugs, after a stroke, or during an epileptic seizure. It is also reported to be a result of blindness or deafness. This type of synesthesia that comes from events unrelated to genes is called adventitious synesthesia and involves sound being linked to vision or touch being linked to hearing.
Q: Who was Mozart?
A: Mozart was an Austrian composer and musician who lived in the 18th century and composed some of the most famous pieces of music in history.
Q: Did Mozart have chromethesia?
A: Yes, some musicians and composers have a form of synesthesia that allows them to "see" music as colors or shapes which is called chromethesia. Mozart reportedly had this form of synesthesia and said that the key of D major had a warm "orangey" sound to it while B-flat minor was blackish and A major was like a rainbow of colors to him.
Q: Who else had color-hearing?
A: Another composer who had color-hearing was the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin who talked with another famous composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov who also had synesthesia about certain musical notes making them think of certain colors in 1907.
Q: What did Scriabin work on with Alexander Mozer?
A:Scriabin worked with Alexander Mozer on creating a color organ which could produce different colored lights based on musical notes played on it.
