Synesthesia is a condition in which people’s perceptions cross typical boundaries: letters can be perceived as colours; numbers or days of the week may be perceived as personalities.
The condition appears to be hereditary. Neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran’s work proposes that the likely scenario for its appearance is a failure of some neural pathways to properly grow distinct from one another.
At birth, all the human brain is interconnected. As we grow (and learn, I suppose) sensory systems isolate themselves to become discrete pathways of perception: sight, touch, sound, etc. In synesthetes, some pathways never fully separate. Curiously, this happens most often in writers, poets and novelists.
Now, one way to describe what a good writer does is draw surprising, illuminating connections between things that aren’t initially obvious. That’s metaphor. Imagery. Humour.
All this evidence suggests that there is indeed a biological component to writing or artistic talent. Which further suggests not everybody can nor should be a writer. And the good ones out there? Maybe they’re rarer and harder to come by than y’all thought.
