Singing the Blues (and Reds): Chromesthesia and Creativity
By Oliver Sussman
When I was a child, I assumed everyone’s favorite musical key must be E. Who could resist its warm, soothing blood-orange tinge? Or maybe F, its deep royal purple filling the room with a stately calm. But certainly not D, because surely no one could enjoy such a putrid green.
To my surprise, not everyone agreed. In fact, few even understood; apparently, my experience of sound-to-color synesthesia was far from universal.
This sound-to-color synesthesia, termed chromesthesia, continues to define my experience of music. In my case and in the case of most fellow chromesthetes, each musical note (and its corresponding key) evokes a specific color, a relationship which feels utterly inherent and immutable—I cannot imagine the experience of F without purple. Though relatively rare, the phenomenon has attracted the attention of researchers seeking insight into the structural and functional relationships between distinct brain regions. Their findings not only help explain how such aberrant perceptual experiences are possible, but may also hold keys to understanding the neural and cognitive roots of human creativity and aesthetic judgment more broadly.
Estimates of the prevalence of synesthesia as a whole vary widely, from 1 in 25,000 (Cytowic, 1997) to 1 in 23 (Simner et al., 2006). Chromesthesia is likely overrepresented among musicians and artists. Chromesthetes are significantly more likely both to play musical instruments and to produce visual art even compared to other synesthetes (Ward, 2013), and a significant number of prominent music artists—including Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Kanye West—report experiencing the phenomenon (Dombal, 2014). There have also been several notable chromesthetic composers, most famously Alexander Scriabin, who sought for his work Prometheus to be performed with a lighted keyboard that would produce chromesthetically associated colors with each note (Berman, 1999). Berman puts it well: “Indeed, more often than not, these artists can be considered visionaries in the true sense of the word.”
To be sure, chromesthesia affords musicians a practical advantage. Chromesthetic associations may facilitate the memorization and recognition of music (Rogers, 1987), and for those who have it, chromesthesia-mediated absolute pitch would no doubt further add to that effect. Yet the chromesthetic musician’s edge may run deeper, owing to more subtle effects on creativity and aesthetic perception.
To illustrate why, Bragança et al. (2015) references the sort of language people typically use when describing music. Expressively, a musical piece can be light or heavy, sweet or dark; syntactically, it may be dense or sparse. These terms are all examples of linguistic synesthesia: metaphors that relate one sensory modality to another. In fact, it seems to be nearly impossible to describe the aesthetic qualities of music without appealing to extramusical adjectives, suggesting that this tendency may be more than a mere oddity of language. This inevitability of linguistic synesthesia lends further credence to the claim that cross-modal associations are less a bug than a feature of human aesthetic cognition.
Bragança et al. posit that everyone might possess a kind of latent synesthesia, in which cross-modal neural and cognitive connections are made but do not rise to the level of conscious perception. This process may be particularly relevant to the domain of music, in which cross-modal aesthetic descriptions are especially salient: “Musical meaning might be largely constructed by synesthetic processes whereby sensory associations from sound activate memories, images, and emotions.” Yet the scope of this latent synesthesia may extend even beyond the sensory realm, helping to explain our formation of metaphors that relate abstract concepts which may similarly be represented by distinct brain regions.
While largely speculative, these hypotheses have some preliminary empirical backing. Bragança et al. found associations between musical excerpts and synesthetic adjectives (sweet, static, light, and heavy) to be highly consistent across individuals, which would be well-explained by common neural circuitry in which subconscious cross-modal connections are made. Moreover, Day (1996) analyzed English and German metaphors as well as the relative prevalences of synesthesia types and found that sound is both the most common sensory modality upon which metaphors are constructed and also the most common synesthetic inducer; this may hint at underlying neural and cognitive similarities between chromesthesia and metaphorical thought.
If it is true that aesthetic cognition is in some sense fundamentally synesthetic, then it stands to reason that chromesthetes might be especially good at it. Whether for structural or functional reasons, chromesthetes may have improved access to neural processes that assist in creativity and aesthetic judgment. This advantage may extend beyond the musical domain, especially if the genetic anomalies which give rise to enhanced interaction between sensory cortical regions also give rise to analogous effects in regions linked to concepts and ideas (Robertson & Sagiv, 2014).
Research on the cognitive science of synesthesia is still in its infancy. However, if these theories hold, they may do far more than validate Stevie Wonder’s musical genius (and Kanye West’s ego)—they may constitute the first step toward a grand cognitive theory of creativity.
About the Author
Oliver Sussman is a senior at Harvard College concentrating in Neuroscience.
References
Berman, G. (1999). Synesthesia and the Arts. Leonardo, 32(1), 15-22. doi:10.1162/002409499552957
Bragança, G. F., Fonseca, J. G., & Caramelli, P. (2015). Synesthesia and music perception. Dementia & Neuropsychologia, 9(1), 16-23. doi:10.1590/s1980-57642015dn91000004
Cytowic R. E. (1997). Synaesthesia: phenomenology and neuropsychology - a review of current knowledge. In S. Baron-Cohen, J. E. Harrison, Synaesthesia - classic and contemporary readings (pp. 17–39). Blackwell Publishers.
Day, S. A. (1996). Synaesthesia and Synaesthetic Metaphors. Psyche, 2(32).
Dombal, R. (2014, January 31). What the Hell Is Synesthesia and Why Does Every Musician Seem to Have It? Retrieved December 10, 2020, from https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/229-what-the-hell-is-synesthesia-and-why-does-every-musician-seem-to-have-it/
Robertson, L. C., & Sagiv, N. (2005). Synesthesia: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, G. L. (1987). Four Cases of Pitch-Specific Chromesthesia in Trained Musicians with Absolute Pitch. Psychology of Music, 15(2), 198-207. doi:10.1177/0305735687152007
Simner, J., Mulvenna, C., Sagiv, N., Tsakanikos, E., Witherby, S. A., Fraser, C., . . . Ward, J. (2006). Synaesthesia: The Prevalence of Atypical Cross-Modal Experiences. Perception, 35(8), 1024-1033. doi:10.1068/p5469
Ward, J. (2013). Synesthesia. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 49-75. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143840
To my surprise, not everyone agreed. In fact, few even understood; apparently, my experience of sound-to-color synesthesia was far from universal.
This sound-to-color synesthesia, termed chromesthesia, continues to define my experience of music. In my case and in the case of most fellow chromesthetes, each musical note (and its corresponding key) evokes a specific color, a relationship which feels utterly inherent and immutable—I cannot imagine the experience of F without purple. Though relatively rare, the phenomenon has attracted the attention of researchers seeking insight into the structural and functional relationships between distinct brain regions. Their findings not only help explain how such aberrant perceptual experiences are possible, but may also hold keys to understanding the neural and cognitive roots of human creativity and aesthetic judgment more broadly.
Estimates of the prevalence of synesthesia as a whole vary widely, from 1 in 25,000 (Cytowic, 1997) to 1 in 23 (Simner et al., 2006). Chromesthesia is likely overrepresented among musicians and artists. Chromesthetes are significantly more likely both to play musical instruments and to produce visual art even compared to other synesthetes (Ward, 2013), and a significant number of prominent music artists—including Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and Kanye West—report experiencing the phenomenon (Dombal, 2014). There have also been several notable chromesthetic composers, most famously Alexander Scriabin, who sought for his work Prometheus to be performed with a lighted keyboard that would produce chromesthetically associated colors with each note (Berman, 1999). Berman puts it well: “Indeed, more often than not, these artists can be considered visionaries in the true sense of the word.”
To be sure, chromesthesia affords musicians a practical advantage. Chromesthetic associations may facilitate the memorization and recognition of music (Rogers, 1987), and for those who have it, chromesthesia-mediated absolute pitch would no doubt further add to that effect. Yet the chromesthetic musician’s edge may run deeper, owing to more subtle effects on creativity and aesthetic perception.
To illustrate why, Bragança et al. (2015) references the sort of language people typically use when describing music. Expressively, a musical piece can be light or heavy, sweet or dark; syntactically, it may be dense or sparse. These terms are all examples of linguistic synesthesia: metaphors that relate one sensory modality to another. In fact, it seems to be nearly impossible to describe the aesthetic qualities of music without appealing to extramusical adjectives, suggesting that this tendency may be more than a mere oddity of language. This inevitability of linguistic synesthesia lends further credence to the claim that cross-modal associations are less a bug than a feature of human aesthetic cognition.
Bragança et al. posit that everyone might possess a kind of latent synesthesia, in which cross-modal neural and cognitive connections are made but do not rise to the level of conscious perception. This process may be particularly relevant to the domain of music, in which cross-modal aesthetic descriptions are especially salient: “Musical meaning might be largely constructed by synesthetic processes whereby sensory associations from sound activate memories, images, and emotions.” Yet the scope of this latent synesthesia may extend even beyond the sensory realm, helping to explain our formation of metaphors that relate abstract concepts which may similarly be represented by distinct brain regions.
While largely speculative, these hypotheses have some preliminary empirical backing. Bragança et al. found associations between musical excerpts and synesthetic adjectives (sweet, static, light, and heavy) to be highly consistent across individuals, which would be well-explained by common neural circuitry in which subconscious cross-modal connections are made. Moreover, Day (1996) analyzed English and German metaphors as well as the relative prevalences of synesthesia types and found that sound is both the most common sensory modality upon which metaphors are constructed and also the most common synesthetic inducer; this may hint at underlying neural and cognitive similarities between chromesthesia and metaphorical thought.
If it is true that aesthetic cognition is in some sense fundamentally synesthetic, then it stands to reason that chromesthetes might be especially good at it. Whether for structural or functional reasons, chromesthetes may have improved access to neural processes that assist in creativity and aesthetic judgment. This advantage may extend beyond the musical domain, especially if the genetic anomalies which give rise to enhanced interaction between sensory cortical regions also give rise to analogous effects in regions linked to concepts and ideas (Robertson & Sagiv, 2014).
Research on the cognitive science of synesthesia is still in its infancy. However, if these theories hold, they may do far more than validate Stevie Wonder’s musical genius (and Kanye West’s ego)—they may constitute the first step toward a grand cognitive theory of creativity.
About the Author
Oliver Sussman is a senior at Harvard College concentrating in Neuroscience.
References
Berman, G. (1999). Synesthesia and the Arts. Leonardo, 32(1), 15-22. doi:10.1162/002409499552957
Bragança, G. F., Fonseca, J. G., & Caramelli, P. (2015). Synesthesia and music perception. Dementia & Neuropsychologia, 9(1), 16-23. doi:10.1590/s1980-57642015dn91000004
Cytowic R. E. (1997). Synaesthesia: phenomenology and neuropsychology - a review of current knowledge. In S. Baron-Cohen, J. E. Harrison, Synaesthesia - classic and contemporary readings (pp. 17–39). Blackwell Publishers.
Day, S. A. (1996). Synaesthesia and Synaesthetic Metaphors. Psyche, 2(32).
Dombal, R. (2014, January 31). What the Hell Is Synesthesia and Why Does Every Musician Seem to Have It? Retrieved December 10, 2020, from https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/229-what-the-hell-is-synesthesia-and-why-does-every-musician-seem-to-have-it/
Robertson, L. C., & Sagiv, N. (2005). Synesthesia: Perspectives from cognitive neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, G. L. (1987). Four Cases of Pitch-Specific Chromesthesia in Trained Musicians with Absolute Pitch. Psychology of Music, 15(2), 198-207. doi:10.1177/0305735687152007
Simner, J., Mulvenna, C., Sagiv, N., Tsakanikos, E., Witherby, S. A., Fraser, C., . . . Ward, J. (2006). Synaesthesia: The Prevalence of Atypical Cross-Modal Experiences. Perception, 35(8), 1024-1033. doi:10.1068/p5469
Ward, J. (2013). Synesthesia. Annual Review of Psychology, 64(1), 49-75. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-113011-143840