I think I might have synesthesia

Post Reply New Topic

Hi everyone,
I'm Jack, and I have a diagnosis of Asperger's. I just found something out on the internet about synaesthesia. Looking back on it, it seems like I've always associated colours and tastes to things like numbers and letters. I wonder if there's a connection between that and autism/Asperger's. Anyone else have similar experience?

Can I just ask, out of interest, what colour do you see 20 as? What about 0?
You probably have synaesthesia.

I do (or did). It has faded somewhat. Turns out that Synesthesia comes and goes in some synesthetes.

There is indeed a connection between synesthesia and autism, but I don't know if you have it.

I can also associate a color with just about everything. I have a very good memory with photos to the extent where I can read form them a bit, but they are not very colorful and to determine the color of something I have to try colors on it until one of them feels right and the vast majority of the time that's the real color of that thing so I can still discern colors from a mental photo that way. This works for many other things though too, for some reason the letter B looks right in dark blue, the number 6 looks right in yellow, and Sunday looks right in red.

I am not exactly sure where the line is drawn for if you have synesthesia, but full on synesthetes may actually see sound as vividly as anything else and/or actually see letters as being colorful. Like a lot of things, it's on a spectrum. I don't think of myself as a synesthete because it's just so mild, I could be wrong in thinking that though. You might have stronger associations then I do, but I don't know where to draw the synesthesia line and I don't know where you are on the spectrum so my guess is as good as yours.

Last edited by mikeman7918 on 29 May 2016, 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Test your synesthesia (the website has been made and maintained by researchers) : http://www.synesthete.org/
And I confirm, there is a correlation with autism.

The test is quite informative, but I had problems with some of the ways that it rushes the tested individual through a battery without much explanation about what is expected and how to answer. While my score was generally beyond threshold, it would have been more so if I hadn't completely, 100-percent, botched the whole battery.

So, my only advice is to take the test slowly and read all the intructions carefully. It IS possible to retake the test, but only if the tested individual creates a new name and e-mail address.

The thing is that it's necessary to not know what the test considers as synesthesia. Otherwise you're going to use your answers to unconsciously favour "synesthetic" answers for the test. It's possible to potentially create false positives that way.
You can pass the test only every 3 months maximum. Otherwise answers are invalid, and they can't be used at all. The answer isn't reliable any longer.

Yes, research suggests that synaesthesia may share common features with ASD:

"The rate of synaesthesia in adults with autism was 18.9% (31 out of 164), almost three times greater than in controls (7.22%, 7 out of 97, P<0.05)." ( http://molecularautism.biomedcentral.co ... -2392-4-40 )

I'm a synesthete. I have a fixed color pattern for numbers and weekdays and I see colors and shapes in pain.