<p>Can synesthesia make a person feel "new" color (or any other experience)?</p>

<p>The answer <strong>may be</strong> yes. You can find this quote “V. S. Ramachandran and E. M. Hubbard (in their 2001 PRSL paper) described a partially colorblind man with letter-color synesthesia who said that when synesthetically stimulated, he saw colors he had never seen with his eyes—he called these “Martian colors.” Ramachandran and Hubbard subsequently found that “the Martian color effect” might occur in noncolorblind synesthetes as well.” from several websites, such as <a href="http://psych.colorado.edu/~ketels/Musicophilia2.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this site</a> and <a href="https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3qci9u/This-in-itself-makes-musical-keys-absolutely-distinctive-for-him-G-sharp-minor/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this site</a>.</p>

<p>But I can’t find the original paper of V. S. Ramachandran and E. M. Hubbard. So, it’s impossible to verify the finding. Also, I can’t find any other reports of such a patient in the literature or any report of non-colorblind synesthetes who experienced “the Martian color effect” either. So, personally, I think this finding and the speculation that “the Martian color effect” might occur in non-colorblind synesthetes as well needs more confirmation. </p>

<p>Anyway, is there evidence that a person who is color-blind since birth can experience a color that he/she has never experienced before? Will his/her cortical color perception areas, which have never generated the missing color perception, able to generate it when given appropriate stimuli, such as from the eyes after gene therapy that restores the missing cone function in the retina? The answer from animal experiments is yes (for example see <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5733843/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ref1</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245628052_Gene_therapy_treatment_of_color_blindness_in_adult_primates" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ref2</a>). So, potentially, a colorblind brain can still generate a color percept that it has never generated before, when given appropriate stimuli. Theoretically, then, synesthesia may be able to make a person feel “new” color he/she has never felt before if it can deliver appropriate stimuli to the color perception areas.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-03T16:48:35.620Z
Wow, now I'm wondering if tetrachromatists(?) actually see more colors then we and how much colors the brain theoretically could have.
rus9384
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-09-03T16:15:13.750Z
2018-09-03T16:15:13.750Z
user287279
<p>For example, do color blind people only able to perceive experienced colors through synesthesia? E.g. if a person both has synesthesia (like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme-color_synesthesia" rel="nofollow noreferrer">grapheme-color synesthesia</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromesthesia" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chromesthesia</a>) and some kind of color blindness (say, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness#Protanopia" rel="nofollow noreferrer">protanopia</a>, when individual can't experience "red" color) will all his/her synesthetic experiences be tied to the colors experienced? Or can synesthesia make a person feel "new" color (or any other experience)?</p>

<perception><color><synesthesia>
Is synesthesia tied to experience?
rus9384
# Is synesthesia tied to experience?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-09-01)

For example, do color blind people only able to perceive experienced colors through synesthesia? E.g. if a person both has synesthesia (like [grapheme-color synesthesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grapheme-color_synesthesia) or [chromesthesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromesthesia)) and some kind of color blindness (say, [protanopia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness#Protanopia), when individual can't experience "red" color) will all his/her synesthetic experiences be tied to the colors experienced? Or can synesthesia make a person feel "new" color (or any other experience)?

**Tags:** perception, color, synesthesia


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-09-03. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Can synesthesia make a person feel "new" color (or any other experience)?

The answer **may be** yes. You can find this quote “V. S. Ramachandran and E. M. Hubbard (in their 2001 PRSL paper) described a partially colorblind man with letter-color synesthesia who said that when synesthetically stimulated, he saw colors he had never seen with his eyes—he called these “Martian colors.” Ramachandran and Hubbard subsequently found that “the Martian color effect” might occur in noncolorblind synesthetes as well.” from several websites, such as [this site](http://psych.colorado.edu/~ketels/Musicophilia2.pdf) and [this site](https://www.coursehero.com/file/p3qci9u/This-in-itself-makes-musical-keys-absolutely-distinctive-for-him-G-sharp-minor/).

But I can’t find the original paper of V. S. Ramachandran and E. M. Hubbard. So, it’s impossible to verify the finding. Also, I can’t find any other reports of such a patient in the literature or any report of non-colorblind synesthetes who experienced “the Martian color effect” either. So, personally, I think this finding and the speculation that “the Martian color effect” might occur in non-colorblind synesthetes as well needs more confirmation.

Anyway, is there evidence that a person who is color-blind since birth can experience a color that he/she has never experienced before? Will his/her cortical color perception areas, which have never generated the missing color perception, able to generate it when given appropriate stimuli, such as from the eyes after gene therapy that restores the missing cone function in the retina? The answer from animal experiments is yes (for example see [Ref1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5733843/) and [Ref2](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/245628052_Gene_therapy_treatment_of_color_blindness_in_adult_primates)). So, potentially, a colorblind brain can still generate a color percept that it has never generated before, when given appropriate stimuli. Theoretically, then, synesthesia may be able to make a person feel “new” color he/she has never felt before if it can deliver appropriate stimuli to the color perception areas.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Wow, now I'm wondering if tetrachromatists(?) actually see more colors then we and how much colors the brain theoretically could have.  

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