Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Emm....Brain Diseases I would like to have.

Ok, so there I was plundering the internet of all its treasures when I came across the startlingly titled page of ‘Brain Diseases I Would Like To Have.’ Naturally enough this piqued my interest. The site features a list of eight diseases/conditions that affect the brain. It’s just weird!
Fair enough they have Photographic Memory, who doesn't want that... there's also Hypergraphia, which is an overwhelming urge to write and em...Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome

There are even youtubes, to demonstrate the ehh...power (?) I suppose that people affected by some of the conditions listed.

One that really stood out to me was synesthesia [sic] which I'd heard of before. Synaesthesia (can be spelled in a number of ways apparently) is a condition where people see music as colours, or taste words, or see numbers as pictures.

I read ‘Born on a Blue Day’ by Daniel Tammet last year, and it’s a really, really good read, if you can get your hands on it. It’s about Daniel Tammet who sees numbers as colours, and can remember Pi to 22,514 digits. His book starts off with: “I was born on 31 January 1979 - a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number nine or the sound of loud voices arguing.”

I’ve always been absolutely fascinated by synasethesia, especially the music aspect, where people see music as different colours. There's also some more here.

Just thought it was a bit bizarre is all...

6 comments:

  1. Have looked at that book a few times with interest alright. I, of course, have one of the brain diseases people don't want ;)

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  2. For my job as a sound engineer I dont think I would fancy that disease, maybe over a weekend or something, but all the same I had never heard of this disease, it does sound interesting.

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  3. Someone, which brain disease do you mean? You know stupidity isn't a disease? :-P

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  4. brain diseases would not be a great interest of mine.

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  5. That is a very interesting post on photographic memory! In fact, to find out more about how you can develop a photographic memory too, check out http://www.photographic-memory.org, they have many great articles and tips to guide you.

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