Comments on: 6 Mind Bending Ailments

By: Jemma

Jemma — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:22:46 +0000

I’m a Prosopagnosic, and until about a year ago I didn’t know there was anything wrong, I just assumed nobody could recognise people.

By: Liz

Liz — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:32:12 +0000

There’s a man in England who forgets every 30 seconds. He says he’s waking up for the first time in years, as if nothing was before that; just blackness. He remembers his wife, etc, but he doesn’t know that the Berlin Wall came down.
What they’ve found is that he has some form of “unconscious memory” where he’s forming new memories, but doesn’t consciously remember them. For example, he’ll watch a movie and then when he watches it again, he’ll say he’s never seen the movie before in his life but he’ll be able to “guess” the ending, just like someone with this condition can improve their tennis game but just attribute it to “beginner’s luck.”

By: Mishele

Mishele — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:04:20 +0000

Yeah, mindlessmunkey, I was going to mention that. In fact, one of his books is titled “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat”. He’s written compassionately about autism, Tourrette’s, color-blindness, and all sorts of other brain problems. In fact, he was the MD that Robin Williams’ played in “Awakenings”. I saw him speak once, he’s shy and charming and if anything happens to my brain I wanna see him!

By: MoonCake

MoonCake — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:09:05 +0000

hey ben– if you run the CATscan machine, i’ll be the test subject.

By: mindlessmunkey

mindlessmunkey — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 02:48:14 +0000

Most of this information seems to have been pilfered from the masterful writing of Oliver Sacks. I do hope Dr Sacks was given his due credit in the original article.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 06:43:11 +0000

Synethesia is also a common component of an LSD trip. It is very interesting. But what this tells us is that at least one thing that causes it can be reproduced with drugs, so it would be useful to run a cat scan and other diagnostics on someone undergoing the experience, see what kinds of changes go on. Of course, the perception of the cat scan would interfere, but who knows what that would do.

By: ferrocyanide

ferrocyanide — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:17:17 +0000

Synethesia sounds cool. I used to associate days of the week with different colors and shapes when I was younger, but I can’t remember any of it now.

By: TMB

TMB — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Two important things that they failed to menetion about synesthesia:
It’s not very uncommon, especially among children.
and
There is a very high correlation between synesthesia and artistic accomplishment (I believe it was Stravinski who when he was a child thought that they turned the lights down during concerts so that he could see the colors better.)

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:44:31 +0000

Synethesia should not be a “problem” unless it is so strong that it’s crippling. to my understanding, most people think of it as a helpful and unique characteristic. My synesthesia helps me read quickly and I love it.

By: z

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:32:28 +0000

I have all of those —and more.

By: Robin

Robin — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:01:17 +0000

Synesthesia doesn’t present a problem for me. I think it’s kinda cool. Hard to explain to people, tho. I associate things with colors. My name is red and white, Like a candy cane. My middle name is light blue. But I don’t literally *see* the colors.

By: nach

nach — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:37:21 +0000

Synesthesia is not a “problem”. It doesn’t make my life difficult or anything.

By: James

James — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:34:30 +0000

Wow, I’m glad I have none of those ……..