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Could someone who got hit by lightning mildly develop synesthesia?
I just want to know anything about lightning and how synesthesia could develop if you got hit and survived. Like...maybe the brain paths got confused?
2 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
Wow, interesting question. It depends on how synesthesia is actually caused, I guess. There are several theories, one being that as young infants, a normal brain goes through a massive pruning process and actually gets rid of connections it doesn't need. However, in a synesthete's brain, the gene that tells the brain to do this is mutated, and as a result these connections stay in place, allowing additional perceptions non-synesthetes wouldn't have. If this were the case, I don't think it would be possible, since there aren't any synesthetic connections for the brain to switch over to while being struck by lightning.
However, there is a theory, favored by Dr. Richard Cytowic and Dr. David Eagleman (according to their book Wednesday is Indigo Blue) that these synesethetic connections exist is every brain, but lie dormant in non-synesthetes because of inhibition and lack of excitation. However, in a synesthete's brain, a lack of inhibition or an increase in excitation, or both, enables the brain to use these pathways. This theory seems to be generally favored, it seems, because certain recreational drugs such as LSD can cause synesthetic effects, and there's no way a drug can just magically make new pathways in the brain for several hours and then get rid of them-the pathways have to be there to start with. These aren't the only two theories, but they're the two most relevant to your question.
So if a person is struck by lightning, assuming they were struck with enough force to jolt all the nerves but not enough to kill them, one would assume that the brain would have to heal itself, right? So I guess, theoretically, it would be possible for the brain to heal itself by using connections it previously had left dormant, assuming the second theory I mentioned is correct. As a side note, I know the brain has amazing powers to heal itself-my piano teacher was colorblind, had a stroke, and after the brain had to reorganize itself as it healed, she found she could see colors. After an injury to the brain like a stroke, the brain healed itself and ended up using connections it had previously left untouched. So I guess if one were to follow that logic, the brain could heal itself from being struck by lightning and end up using connections it hadn't used before, which might include synesthetic connections. Although I doubt there are any documented cases of this (I'd actually be shocked if there were), but I suppose, if the conditions were just right, it could happen.