For most of her life, retired GP Judy Stokes believed she was simply "very odd." It wasn't until her sixties that she discovered the scientific name for the extraordinary way her brain perceives the world: spatial-sequence synaesthesia.
A Calendar in the Mind's Eye
Judy experiences time as a vast, three-dimensional grid stretching through her consciousness. If someone mentions a date, that specific day instantly appears within this mental diagram, already marked with birthdays, holidays, or personal events. This internal calendar extends from around 100,000 BC to the year 2500, with public holidays like Christmas permanently imprinted.
"I am physically in that diagram in my head," Judy explains. When planning, she visualises herself within the grid. An upcoming concert, for instance, would see an image of the venue superimposed onto the 7pm to 10pm slot on the relevant day. This phenomenon isn't just about dates; the alphabet and numbers also follow distinct, patterned pathways in her mind's eye.
The Discovery of 'Yellow Tuesdays'
The revelation that others shared her experience came decades after an awkward conversation. "I’d mentioned to a friend that Tuesdays were yellow," Judy recalls. The friend's bewildered look mirrored the reactions of family members when she described her mental calendar, leading her to bury the subject out of embarrassment.
Her breakthrough came unexpectedly while researching anxiety management for her paediatric patients. She stumbled upon studies from Macquarie University in Sydney on grapheme-colour synaesthesia, and later, spatial-sequence synaesthesia. "Perhaps I was not so odd after all," she realised.
The Gifts and Structure of a Synaesthetic Brain
The primary daily benefit of her condition is a formidable memory. The structured patterns have aided her with mental arithmetic and comparing prices, as amounts arrange themselves on a "number map." She can recall the birthdays of friends she hasn't seen for 65 years and picture her kindergarten classroom in vivid detail.
Professor Anina Rich, a cognitive neuroscientist and chair of the synaesthesia research group at Macquarie University, notes that an estimated 10% to 20% of people have some form of spatial-sequence synaesthesia, though manifestations vary. Some see time in circles or squares, while Judy's grid runs left to right, veering up and down.
While digital calendars have reduced its planning utility, her synaesthesia remains a handy tool for trivia nights. "Sometimes I’d like to be more laissez-faire and less structured in my head," Judy admits, "but I do find it fascinating." She hopes future neuroscience will unravel these neural patterns further and has even offered her brain for posthumous research.
Her story underscores a profound truth: We are all alike, and yet our brains are surprisingly different. For Judy Stokes, that difference paints time in colour and constructs it in space, offering a unique lens on a life fully lived.
