Erica, on the other hand, enjoys an unusual condition called synesthesia. Most people’s brains are compartmentalized like Aviva’s. Erica and Aviva have no idea they perceive the world differently. Her brain is like the weather pattern in the rocky mountainous regions: isolation by a mountain makes weather in one spot independent of weather in the next range. Thursday makes her anticipate the weekend, but it has no location. On the other hand, things are neatly compartmentalized in Aviva’s brain. Erica’s senses and concepts are open to each other, flowing and merging like weather streams. Erica’s brain is like the weather system on the coast: all the elements interact because there are no barriers to keep
When she thinks of today-Thursday-the concept seems to occupy a particular region of space near her right shoulder. When she hears the voice of the weather announcer, she can’t help but sense a deep indigo color that ripples in the upper left corner of her visual field. When Erica tastes a chocolate-covered raisin on her tongue, she feels a nubbled texture on her fingertips. And so Erica and Aviva blithely sit next to one another sharing their raisins. She doesn’t know that the possibility of dissimilar experience goes much deeper than color, and she doesn’t know that Erica’s reality is measurably different than hers. Once, in college, she asked her roommate, “How do I know I see red the same way you see red? What if what you call red is what I call green?” They concluded they cannot know, but that it didn’t matter how they saw it on the inside so long as they both agreed to call an apple “red.” To this day Aviva continues to be intrigued by the idea that two people may see red differently. Aviva sits nearby and pops a raisin in her mouth, also not suspecting that she and her friend experience a different world. This tiny change, expressing itself in her billions of brain cells, makes her reality different from her friend’s. But from the day of her conception, a miniscule genetic change lurked deep in her chromosomes. She has no reason to suspect there is anything unusual about her brain. The weather patterns are shaping up for a beautiful day, and at the moment Erica is sharing a package of chocolate-covered raisins with her colleague Aviva. She is a twenty-seven-year-old meteorologist with an expressive face framed by long dark hair. RC394.S93C964 2009 612.8'233-dc22 2008029814 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Īfterword by Dmitri Nabokov Notes 255 Bibliography 281 Index 301Įrica Borden watches weather patterns on a giant screen each day.
Includes bibliographical references and index. Wednesday is indigo blue : discovering the brain of synesthesia / Richard E. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cytowic, Richard E. This book was set in Stone Sans and Stone Serif by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd., Hong Kong and was printed and bound in the United States of America. For information, please e-mail or write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. © 2009 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Afterword Copyright © 2009 Dmitri Nabokov All rights reserved. Eagleman, Ph.D.Ī Bradford Book The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England WEDNESDAY IS INDIGO BLUE Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia Richard E. Dethronement: The Unconscious Brain Behind the I Plasticity: How the Brain Reconfigures Itself on the Fly Sum: Tales from the Afterlives Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses (2nd edition) Nerve Block for Common Pain The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology The Man Who Tasted ShapesĪlso by David M.
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