Synaesthesia

[Anonymouse]

We were talking about synesthesia in my advanced perception lab last week. For those of you who haven't heard of it, synesthesia is a condition that causes people to combine certain sensory experiences. For instance, people with grapheme/color synesthesia will see certain letters as certain colors. It's different from the way a lot of people think of the letter A as being red, or B as blue or whatever (that's how I imagine them) because these people actually see the text in different colors, not just imagine it.

Anyway, we were talking about the causes for this and our professor said that infants tend to have a lot of brain connections that eventually get weeded out as we get older, because some of them don't make sense. So it's possible that everyone starts out with cross-wired connections like this, but as we grow some people might not lose those connections while the rest of the population does.

I was just wondering if maybe this could explain the fetish. Perhaps it's just cross-wiring. It would be cool to do brain scans of people with the fetish to see how the brain lights up in response to sneezing and sexual stimulation. In synesthetics they found that the areas for two senses that were usually experienced in tandem were also located quite close to one another in the brain.

I'm about to check through the psychology databases my school subscribes to now to see if anyone's actually done research on this yet.

Edited September 11, 2011 by AnonyMouse

[Pilgrim]

I could swear I read something exactly to this effect somewhere on here before. Like with the phrase "cross-wiring" and everything. It was in a comparison to the foot fetish, I think.

[Anonymouse]

Yeah, I see that phrase all the time, but I never really thought about it until now. The only thing I could find when I searched for 'sexual fetishes' was an article on feederism, and even then the full text wasn't available. I'm just surprised that not a lot of people are doing research on this. I think it's absolutely intriguing!

[polychrome]

Here's some recent discussion: Synesthesia Thread

[chalkdust]

Then wouldn't that imply that everyone would have a fetish to everything when we are born and then over time most get weeded out? It dosen't make sense to me. Also, I don't want to think of myself as having my 'wires crossed' lol

[Anonymouse]

Then wouldn't that imply that everyone would have a fetish to everything when we are born and then over time most get weeded out? It dosen't make sense to me. Also, I don't want to think of myself as having my 'wires crossed' lol

Well nobody knows for sure if that's even what happens with synesthesia or not. It's difficult to do those kinds of experiments with babies. It's just something that came to mind, I didn't really think it through, I just threw it out there to get some discussion going.

[Jorm]

I could swear I read something exactly to this effect somewhere on here before. Like with the phrase "cross-wiring" and everything. It was in a comparison to the foot fetish, I think.

That was probably me. I know I've pointed out the similarities between synesthesia and fetishes at least twice in threads here.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if fetishes have a similar neural connection to synesthesia. Both are basically unusual psycho-physical connects, whether it be seeing colours when you hear music or becoming aroused when you see someone sneeze.

Then wouldn't that imply that everyone would have a fetish to everything when we are born and then over time most get weeded out? It dosen't make sense to me. Also, I don't want to think of myself as having my 'wires crossed' lol

Not necessarily. A lot of neurologist do think that we're all essentially born with synesthesia and as our brains mature and develop most of us lose those connections, but born with it isn't the only way for those connections to happen. Neural networks and connects are perfectly capable of changing over time from environmental stimuli, so it's theoretically possible for a fetish to be a case of crossed wires that develop later in life.

And who says crossed wires are bad?

[GoldenOwl]

This is a really thought-provoking question! As far as wire-crossing and the like goes, and whether or not we're born with some amount of synesthesia, think about some synesthesia now in your life. For you, is each genre of music a shape? Do colors have tastes? Therefore, I would say it is extremely possible that we do have some form of synesthesia, but manifested in a different way as most other synesthetics.

[doggo]

Hey, very interesting. Perhaps some early stimuli and resulting pleasure makes it more likely for the wiring to stay there and not being weeded out? And yes, I'd loooove someone to study this fetish.

[count tiszula]

I'm not really up in this area, but do I not recall that in early psychiatry [perhaps even from Our Freud] there was the idea that we are all born as polymorphous perverts [is that it?] ie that babies derive gratification from all physical stimuli equally, so that they are as much turned on by eating , or of course in our case sneezing, as they are by more conventional sexual stimuli.

I suppose this has long been outlawed now that we know babies to be innocent; but it seems to prefigure the crosswiring theory...

[Giant Steps]

Hey, very interesting. Perhaps some early stimuli and resulting pleasure makes it more likely for the wiring to stay there and not being weeded out? And yes, I'd loooove someone to study this fetish.

I would love to study it! Though a fetish-researcher doesn't sound like a particularly charming job title, however interesting I may find it.

Obviously the brain and it's functions are still far too advanced for us to fully understand, even at this stage of medical advancemnt. And questions like this beg answers I can hardly comprehend! Dr Nic may has some interesting theories, however! She's got a pretty got brain for brains.

[Anonymouse]

Hey, very interesting. Perhaps some early stimuli and resulting pleasure makes it more likely for the wiring to stay there and not being weeded out? And yes, I'd loooove someone to study this fetish.

I would love to study it! Though a fetish-researcher doesn't sound like a particularly charming job title, however interesting I may find it.

Obviously the brain and it's functions are still far too advanced for us to fully understand, even at this stage of medical advancemnt. And questions like this beg answers I can hardly comprehend! Dr Nic may has some interesting theories, however! She's got a pretty got brain for brains.

Hahaha, fetish-researcher. I was thinking you might be considered a sex psychologist, since it is related to sex.

[chalkdust]

[

And who says crossed wires are bad?

Well, since we aren't supposed to cross the streams, I figure we shouldn't cross the wires either!

[Anonymouse]

[

And who says crossed wires are bad?

Well, since we aren't supposed to cross the streams, I figure we shouldn't cross the wires either!

Tried to find a drum roll/cymbal crash smiley. Failed.

[Chanel_no5]

sex psychologist

Now that's a lovely title...

[brokensneeze]

sex psychologist

Now that's a lovely title...

Or you could just shorten it to "sexychologist".

And on the original question, I have thought for a long time that synesthesia and fetishes may involve a similar phenomenon.

Edited September 15, 2011 by brokensneeze