Ideasthesia

Ideasthesia (alternative spelling ideaesthesia) is a neuropsychological phenomenon in which activations of concepts (inducers) evoke perception-like sensory experiences (concurrents).

The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa) and αἴσθησις (aísthēsis), meaning 'sensing concepts' or 'sensing ideas'.

In one study synesthetes were presented with Glagolitic letters that they had never seen before, and the meaning was acquired through a short writing exercise.

Although the time course is consistent with postsynaptic AMPA receptor upregulation or NMDA receptor coactivation, or both, which would imply that the realtime experience is invoked at the synaptic level of analysis prior to establishment of novel wiring per se, a very intuitively appealing model.

Investigation of such cases has indicated that such unique experiences typically occur when a synesthete is involved in an intensive mental and emotional activity such as making important plans for one's future or reflecting on one's life.

[17][18][19] Most people will agree that the star-shaped object on the left is named Kiki and the round one on the right Bouba.

Food description and wine tasting is another domain in which ideasthetic association between flavor and other modalities such as shape may play an important role.

[23] These semantic-like relations play a role in successful marketing; the name of a product should match its other characteristics.

Synesthetic children may associate concrete sensory-like experiences primarily to the abstract concepts that they have otherwise difficulties dealing with.

[9] Synesthesia may thus be used as a cognitive tool to cope with the abstractness of the learning materials imposed by the educational system – referred to also as a "semantic vacuum hypothesis".

This hypothesis explains why the most common inducers in synesthesia are graphemes and time units – both relating to the first truly abstract ideas that a child needs to master.