Synesthesia Conversation Starters

1. We learned that nerve impulses are like trucks driving around highways of brain connections from one part of your brain to another. Talk about what “route” these “trucks” take when you experience something. For instance when you eat: The trucks go from the brain cells that help you taste food to the ones that make you chew to the part of your brain that makes you digest. How about when you play a sport or an instrument?
2. Imagine you could connect parts of your brain which are normally separate the way they are in people with synesthesia. What kinds of sensations could you create? (When you do math homework you taste cookies? When you take a bath you feel like you’re flying?)
3. When we really concentrate on listening to music many of us can imagine certain colors even if we don’t have synesthesia. Listen to a few seconds of a few different songs together with a family member and write down or draw what colors you see for each. Compare how similar or different your observations are from your partner. Can you tell you’re related?