Are there any advantages or disadvantages to having synaesthesia?
Synaesthesia may have some benefits on memory. For example, people with coloured numbers can recall arrays of their coloured digits better than most people. One of the most famous synaesthetes, Shereshevsky (Luria, 1966), actually made a living out of being a memory expert! Synaesthesia has no known effects on IQ and synaesthetes do not stand out from other members of society in any obvious way. Most synaesthetes are positively disposed to their synaesthesia, but for a very small number, synaesthetic perceptions may be intrusive if they are particularly intense. Finally, some synaesthetes report having difficulties with numbers and get left/right confused.
