Meaning of pseudo-chromesthesia | Babel Free

Definitions

A type of synesthesia when sounds trigger involuntary, subjective sensations of color; during which a person might see colors when they hear music, specific pitches, words, or everyday noises (e.g. a "blue" sound or a "red" voice); a mental association rather than a true, external visual perception.

obsolete, rare

Examples

“The helpfulness of pseudo-chromesthesia is less obvious, yet it is reported in about one-fourth our cases. ' ' Colors do not look right," one subject writes, " unless a word is spelled right. For instance, I spelled permanent, the other day, with two a’s, and it did not look pale enough." Another is helped in writing rhymes, and a third in committing music to memory.”

“In The American Journal of Psychology for October, 1892, Dr. William O. Krohn treats of the curious phenomena of pseudo-chromesthesia, in which sound gives rise to colo sensation, and he explains it by the nearness of the auditory and visual centers in the brain cortex.”

CEFR level