3 ms·

Ticker Tape Synesthesia

47 points by daverol 2y ago

tomcam 2y ago
I wonder if this happens in ideogram-based languages, such as Chinese
- hatthew 2y ago
  hmm, do you have some hypothesis as to why that would make a difference?
  - tomcam 2y ago
    No! For example, I’m a terrible artist, but I don’t think in words. So I think images, but it doesn’t cross over to my aesthetic abilities. But I wonder if the process of building up words from phonemes or syllables in your mind somehow maps differently from doing it with ideograms.
  - sophacles 2y ago
    I could probably come up with a bunch of plausible reasons it would make a difference, and a bunch for why it wouldn't. Seems like a good question to ask for that reason alone... it strikes me as the type of datapoint that would allow researchers to narrow in on what's going on in the brains of people who experience it.
bondarchuk 2y ago
>No figure is yet known for the exact prevalence of "ticker tapers" among the synesthete and non-synesthete population, but an interesting study (Holm, Eilertsen and Price, 2015) found that almost half the general population reported some kind of mild experience of this type. Amazing, I wonder what else I have no idea of will eventually turn out to be experienced by half the population.
- RedNifre 2y ago
  Having an internal monologue (thinking in words/sentences) is actually a minority thing.
  - _def 2y ago
    Is it really? Would be super interested in reading up on that (not doubting, just very curious)
    - Jerrrrrrry 2y ago
      X to doubt, full of self-important wieners with pitiful imaginations, that are jealous my "red" is "redder" than their "red": I cant actually picture red; but its a lack of articulateness and a vocal minority rarely-intersecting that drown out my lack of understanding or doubt. indiscernible from crying, they "cannot also picture red, by a way less than you can empathize with" nobody actually sees what they think. the wall is blank. those drifters are usually debris or thiccer blood cell components
      - satvikpendem 2y ago
        You can't picture red and the wall is blank? Sounds like you have aphantasia.
      - randomcarbloke 2y ago
        thank you.
  - Loughla 2y ago
    Wait. Is it? I see pictures if I focus, but it's mostly like a conversation with someone who lives inside my head.
  - aaron695 2y ago
    [dead]
  - geon 2y ago
extrn 2y ago
Interesting. I have aphantasia, visual snow, and at least audio-tactile / sound-color / space-concept synesthesia. I often see a grid of dense, contextually sensitive symbolics overlaid onto backgrounds. For example, I see math-like things on white walls, charts & graphs when I look at gray ones, and kanji-like strokes when I watch anime (I studied Japanese years ago). As a researcher in AGI, it makes me wonder if synesthesia is just a mixture of any senses that happen to develop particularly strong associations rather than a separate pathway. My synesthesia certainly has been getting stronger the more I learn.
m463 2y ago
Sort of amazing. Sounds like LitRPG come to life.
fortran77 2y ago
The only way I can copy Morse Code in my head is to visualize the letters being typed as I hear them and reading it back. I originally learned code by developing a "reflex" action to write the letter as I heard it; when I went to higher speeds (~50wpm) (before computer decoding was available) I'd type it on a typewriter as I heard it.
lowdest 2y ago
I do this when I'm trying to really focus on what the speaker is saying. It helps keep my mind from wandering. It's completely voluntary, though.
mintplant 2y ago
Oh. Huh. Yeah, this is how my internal monologue works. Thoughts can appear in bold font, italics, sizes and colors, etc. I hear my thoughts at the same time; the two blend together as if they're one modality. This has an interesting effect when I'm processing symbols ("'$#{} etc), which have their own monosyllabic "tokens" in my head which don't necessarily sound different from one another at the audio level (they're like little grunts), but are distinct on some level of processing. Helps me read and write code quickly. There's also a sense of motion and direction attached - a semicolon in a sentence can feel like the stream of "ticker tape" is taking a 90° turn and continuing on in that new direction, for example.
smusamashah 2y ago
I dont have this but I have experienced this rarely in some dreams, where a concept appears as an object or a shape and you know it. In one very old dream I saw love as a yellow space ship like object. In that moment in that dream, these two weren't separate from each other. May be that's not synesthesia but that's how I understand it.

47 points by daverol 2y ago

tomcam 2y ago

I wonder if this happens in ideogram-based languages, such as Chinese

hatthew 2y ago
hmm, do you have some hypothesis as to why that would make a difference?
- tomcam 2y ago
  No! For example, I’m a terrible artist, but I don’t think in words. So I think images, but it doesn’t cross over to my aesthetic abilities. But I wonder if the process of building up words from phonemes or syllables in your mind somehow maps differently from doing it with ideograms.
- sophacles 2y ago
  I could probably come up with a bunch of plausible reasons it would make a difference, and a bunch for why it wouldn't. Seems like a good question to ask for that reason alone... it strikes me as the type of datapoint that would allow researchers to narrow in on what's going on in the brains of people who experience it.

bondarchuk 2y ago

>No figure is yet known for the exact prevalence of "ticker tapers" among the synesthete and non-synesthete population, but an interesting study (Holm, Eilertsen and Price, 2015) found that almost half the general population reported some kind of mild experience of this type. Amazing, I wonder what else I have no idea of will eventually turn out to be experienced by half the population.

RedNifre 2y ago
Having an internal monologue (thinking in words/sentences) is actually a minority thing.
- _def 2y ago
  Is it really? Would be super interested in reading up on that (not doubting, just very curious)
  - Jerrrrrrry 2y ago
    X to doubt, full of self-important wieners with pitiful imaginations, that are jealous my "red" is "redder" than their "red": I cant actually picture red; but its a lack of articulateness and a vocal minority rarely-intersecting that drown out my lack of understanding or doubt. indiscernible from crying, they "cannot also picture red, by a way less than you can empathize with" nobody actually sees what they think. the wall is blank. those drifters are usually debris or thiccer blood cell components
    - satvikpendem 2y ago
      You can't picture red and the wall is blank? Sounds like you have aphantasia.
    - randomcarbloke 2y ago
      thank you.
- Loughla 2y ago
  Wait. Is it? I see pictures if I focus, but it's mostly like a conversation with someone who lives inside my head.
- aaron695 2y ago
  [dead]
- geon 2y ago

extrn 2y ago

Interesting. I have aphantasia, visual snow, and at least audio-tactile / sound-color / space-concept synesthesia. I often see a grid of dense, contextually sensitive symbolics overlaid onto backgrounds. For example, I see math-like things on white walls, charts & graphs when I look at gray ones, and kanji-like strokes when I watch anime (I studied Japanese years ago). As a researcher in AGI, it makes me wonder if synesthesia is just a mixture of any senses that happen to develop particularly strong associations rather than a separate pathway. My synesthesia certainly has been getting stronger the more I learn.

m463 2y ago

Sort of amazing. Sounds like LitRPG come to life.

fortran77 2y ago

The only way I can copy Morse Code in my head is to visualize the letters being typed as I hear them and reading it back. I originally learned code by developing a "reflex" action to write the letter as I heard it; when I went to higher speeds (~50wpm) (before computer decoding was available) I'd type it on a typewriter as I heard it.

lowdest 2y ago

I do this when I'm trying to really focus on what the speaker is saying. It helps keep my mind from wandering. It's completely voluntary, though.

mintplant 2y ago

Oh. Huh. Yeah, this is how my internal monologue works. Thoughts can appear in bold font, italics, sizes and colors, etc. I hear my thoughts at the same time; the two blend together as if they're one modality. This has an interesting effect when I'm processing symbols ("'$#{} etc), which have their own monosyllabic "tokens" in my head which don't necessarily sound different from one another at the audio level (they're like little grunts), but are distinct on some level of processing. Helps me read and write code quickly. There's also a sense of motion and direction attached - a semicolon in a sentence can feel like the stream of "ticker tape" is taking a 90° turn and continuing on in that new direction, for example.

smusamashah 2y ago

I dont have this but I have experienced this rarely in some dreams, where a concept appears as an object or a shape and you know it. In one very old dream I saw love as a yellow space ship like object. In that moment in that dream, these two weren't separate from each other. May be that's not synesthesia but that's how I understand it.