When
someone with this type of synesthesia hears another person speak, they get the
feeling that their own mouth, throat and even stomach are moving as if they
were producing the same sounds.
Here are some descriptions written by people with this type of synesthesia:
“It's a
strange, extremely vivid sensation of physically speaking (tongue motions, lip
movements, air in my throat) when I'm not, and my mouth/tongue/throat aren't
actually moving.”
(Source: This comment on the online debate platform Reddit/Synesthesia. 2020.)
"…forgetting
to breathe because I can't remember if I've actually taken a breath or if it
was just someone else... or choking on someone else's snores or
coughs...!"
“I have a
sensation in back of my throat corresponding to the sounds I hear, except it applies
to all sounds, not just speech or singing. It feels almost like a sort of
opening or closing in my throat (which isn't actually happening), combined with
the "texture" (how smooth/rough a sound is). The sensation can also
have a feeling of motion that might extend out, up, or down into my head or
chest."
Go to the page on auditory-tactile synesthesia
I think I experience something like this, but it differs from the description in a key way: I experience what the sound of other people's voices feels like in my own throat and chest, but I don't feel like my anatomy is moving most of the time. Certain sounds cause a sensation that tricks me into thinking "Did I just do that too?" But that's rare. Mostly I'm just feeling the sound of the other person's voice. The resonance. The vocal fry. The shakiness or firmness.
ReplyDeleteIt happens on a wide spectrum of intensity, with some vocal sounds not even registering, and some vocal sounds being scarcely perceptible, and some vocal sounds matching or exceeding the sensation of making the sound myself. When I sing together with other people and we're harmonizing, I feel like the vibrations in my own throat have doubled or tripled because their voices are in there too. Same for when I'm at a concert and everyone (including me) screams with excitement.
And the inducer isn't just human voices. I feel sensations when I hear the voices of animals, especially some of the sounds ravens make. And totally artificial sounds that kind of resemble voices- I feel those too. Other forms of synesthesia: I have textures for sounds in general, mostly in my mind but sometimes they have a location in my mouth, cheeks, inner ears, and on or in my head. And sounds distort how things taste and feel in my mouth.