Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers
Steffie Tomson: I Have It Too!
Season 2011 Episode 16 | 2m 24s | Video has closed captioning.
Steffie Tomson: I Have It Too!
Aired: 02/01/11
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers
Season 2011 Episode 16 | 2m 24s | Video has closed captioning.
Steffie Tomson: I Have It Too!
Aired: 02/01/11
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning
(gentle music) - Okay, so synesthesia.
S is red, pale yellow, green, blue, red again, yellow, orange, blue, red, black, and A is red.
I remember a vague instance in like second grade.
I was thinking through how to spell a word.
And I remember associating some letter with yellow.
I'm guessing it's T because that's what it is for me now.
And I remember someone saying, "What do you mean yellow?
What does that have to do with anything?
We're studying, like focus here."
I just thought, oh, well, nobody else sees that.
So I should just stop talking.
So I was in college, and I saw a flyer that had synesthesia, and of course every single letter had a different color and they were all wrong.
What is wrong with this poster?
And so then, of course, I read it and I thought, oh I really do have that.
And it never really occurred to me before.
And it was kind of neat to know that someone cared about it, I guess.
So I called the number and said, "Hey, I'm a synesthete, it turns out."
I came in and I did some experiments.
And I said, "Hey, this is really cool.
If you ever need help sometime, let me know."
And he said, "Sure."
I think I'm the only person I know that's researching synesthesia that also has it.
One participant that came in, she had just found out that she had synesthesia.
She was so excited about it.
And she kept talking about her experiences, and I sort of nodded along like it made perfect sense.
And she was like, "You're the only person that nods like that."
And I said, "Well, I have it, so I know exactly what you're talking about."
She said, "I can't believe it.
I can't believe it.
I can't believe everyone doesn't see the world this way."
She was just bubbling with excitement, and even coming out of the scanner.
It's really kind of neat because I feel like I get all this extra information that they wouldn't have told someone else because a non-synesthete doesn't really understand.
I would hate to not be a synesthete anymore.
It doesn't make any sense to me how a person can think about an alphabet without having brilliant colors.
It seems like it would be really boring.