Klarinet Archive - Posting 000729.txt from 2002/05

From: Mark Gresham <mgresham@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Synaesthesia and Science
Date: Wed, 29 May 2002 18:51:18 -0400

William Wright wrote:
>
> <><> Tony Pay wrote:
> No-one claims that synaesthesia doesn't exist. *Science* certainly
> doesn't. But equally, no-one (I hope) claims that synaesthesia is
> essential for appreciating music.
>
> Synesthesia is relevant to the extent that it is (or is not) an
> exaggeration of an otherwise normal function.
>
> That is, do non-aural pathways participate in processing (either
> listening or playing) music? If 'yes', then a severe case of
> synesthesia may supply clues about the underlying mechanism.

For several years, some years ago, I lived in the same apartment with
someone who has synesthesia. Unfortunately, this individual also has
*severe* obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome.
At the same time, the individual had what one might classify as
"perfect pitch" -- however, the ability to identify pitches was tied to
her mother's old piano, which was about a good 1/4 step flat; her
understanding of an A# was the pitch in the cracks between A and A# on a
well tempered piano. She also names pitches as only naturals or sharps,
she'd never learned "flats" as names for pitches.

I also caution against limiting "locomotor" pathways to recalling a
"pleasurable physical experience" because the recollection, and
reaction, may not be at all pleasurable, and what might be "pleasurable"
most people to someone with these compounded conditions may be produce
little emotional stimulus; or even a sound which is "ignorable" to most
can be a terrifying cause of potentially bad consequences (paranoia).
For the former, I recall her fascination with hearing Schoenberg's
dodecaphonic music for the first time, and though her entire experience
had been three-chord pop music, it was like seeing color TV for the
first time (I use the metaphor because of the synesthesia).
Yet any "click" sound would set off obsessive compulsive disorder, the
particular symptom being a paranoia that something bad would happen if
she were unable to repeat the "click" sound by verbally spitting out a
"t" (voiceless dental fricative) -- an obligatory responsive behavior
demanded by her OCD. Imagine the results of hearing someone typing --
she could not keep up with either typing speed nor count of how many
successful responses she was able to make.
Frankly, although she had synesthesia, she had very little interest in
music at all, whether "pop" or any additional interest in the once-heard
dodecaphonic experience. The "sound with an allied neural-response of
visual color" did not make music any more interesting or attractive to
her.
I do know one other person with synesthesia, and he is a composer. He
would be able to communicate intelligently with this list on his
experiences, but I have only seen him once in the past 10 years, and
have no idea where he currently lives.

To re-quote:
> Synesthesia is relevant to the extent that it is (or is not) an
> exaggeration of an otherwise normal function.

Or perhaps an *abnormal* function. I do not recall ever having asked
her if pharmeceutical treatments of OCD with Anafranil (or
mis-treatments with Haldol) had an impact on the synesthesia, either
repressing or enhancing it, relative to the impact on the symptoms of
OCD and Tourettes syndrome.
It is common knowledge that certain drug-induced states are capable of
"exaggeration of an otherwise normal function" with regard to perception
of sound and color. (Some years ago I was given a cogent argument by
Dr. Mark Woodhouse, who did some graduate legal study with Timothy
Leary, regarding what he believed to be strong definable differences
between "psychological" and "spiritual" experiences -- meaning he
disagreed with one of Leary's major premises about drug-induced states.)
But then, there may also be neural functions which are "shared
functions" use by other neural processes which otherwise do not affect
or causally overlap each other. So there is some small logical risk of
imposing post-hoc fallacy upon functions that happen simultaneously, but
where neither is actually caused by the other one.

--
Mark Gresham, composer
mgresham@-----.com/
Lux Nova Press http://www.luxnova.com/
LNP Retail Webstore http://www.luxnova.com/lnpwebstore/

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