Various forms of Synesthesia

[bucolic_frolic]

https://www.thesynesthesiatree.com/2021/03/number-form-synesthesia.html

Number-form synesthesia

Also occasionally called number-space synesthesia

People with this type of synesthesia perceive numbers as a sequence visualised spatially, around them or in front of them. The spatial positioning is highly consistent and tends not to vary throughout the synesthete’s lifetime. For many of these people, each number also has its own colour (so number-form coexists with grapheme-colour synesthesia in this case), or their number maps have shading effects. These synesthetes frequently visualise the numbers spatially in relation to themselves, with a perspective that varies according to the number they have in mind at any given time. The maps are three-dimensional and assume many different forms: they can be straight or curving, with one or more changes of direction, with right angles, peaks and dips, spirals, zigzags, steps or ladder-like structures, going from right to left or vice versa, climbing up or disappearing on the horizon as the numbers get larger, and they may look tidy and well-organised or appear chaotic, only making sense to their “owner”. In any case, it can safely be said that there are as many spatial numerical maps as there are number-form synesthetes, as this type of synesthesia is just as idiosyncratic as any other.

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Posted because I have number-space synesthesia. Stumbled upon it one day as i wondered if my visual of numbers was anything unique. I think I got it from a childrens' book on numbers. My 1 to 10 and 20 to 30 and 30 to 40 up to 100 repeat, and then 100 to 200 looks like 1 to 100. But 1 to 10 also looks like 100 to 1000. And so on.

[Ocelot II]

1. I thought that was normal, how else could one imagine numbers?

My number maps vary depending on what the numbers are defining, like days of the week or months in a year.

[RainCaster]

2. To me, prime numbers look very different

They stand out in a beautiful way.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Is that learned for you, or did you always see them that way? /nt

[RainCaster]

7. Never really thought about it

[intrepidity]

3. I wish I had this superpower

As a kid, I had some form of synesthesia involving colors, but it faded as I grew up.

I wonder if this is the same or similar to how some savants see numbers?

It is utterly fascinating to me.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I never thought much about it, and for me it's not some superpower

If you throw a number at me - 124, and ask how much I'll make if it gets to 200, I see my little path, trending down to 125, then up to 130, and can tell really fast it's 76. I don't use the addition/subtraction digits written in grade school chalkboard form. I suppose I can multiply and divide simple things in the same way, but forget large numbers. Don't give me 1,227,393 and divide it by 14. I'll go grab a calculator.

[intrepidity]

6. To me, it says something about the fundamental mathematical nature of reality

(or at least, what we take as reality).

I don't know how anyone could explain it, but I hope they keep trying. I really do feel it is significant.

At a minimum, it will tell us important things about how our brain works. At maximum, it could reveal the secret to the universe.