The Man Who Tastes Shapes

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Some people see, taste, hear and feel things the rest of us don't.
James ... tastes words: "New York is runny eggs.
Londonis ... lumpy mashed ...
Carol Steen sees ... with a Some people see, taste, hear and feel things the rest of us don't.
James Wannerton tastes words: "New York is runny eggs. Londonis extremely lumpy mashed potatoes." Carol Steen sees everyletter with a color: "Z is the color of beer, a light ale."For Carol Crane, music is felt: "I always feel guitars on myankles and violins on my face." Other people experience smellswhen exposed to shapes, or hear sounds inside taste.
And forsome, numbers have color, sounds have smell, and words haveflavor. Music is not only heard, it's seen and tasted--the listgoes on.Neurologist Richard Cytowic explores this surreal world of "synesthesia" in his book, The Man Who Tasted Shapes.
"Synesthesia means joined sensation, and some people are bornwith two or more of their senses hooked together," explainsCytowic.The most common form of synesthesia is when a person see lettersin different colors instead of seeing black ink letters as black.Although people differ from each other in what colors theletters are, the colors usually remain the same for eachindividual throughout their life.Depending on what food they taste, other synesthetes experiencetaste as a shape, like a triangle or circle. Another person seesorange when feeling pain.For New York artist Carol Steen, synesthesia is inspiration.
Shesees shapes and colors when listening to music or receivingacupuncture-images that she transforms into works of art. "It'slike putting on sunglasses and being able to see the worldthrough the sunglasses," she says.
Once, when Steen injured herleg while hiking, all she saw was a world bathed in orange.And, Carol Crane does more than simply hear a concert. Shephysically experiences each instrument within a different partof her body.Still another person hears a sound that tastes like pickles.
Foras long as he can recall, words have triggered the part ofWannerton's brain that responds to tastes and flavors. "I canremember being in a big school assembly hall listening to theLords Prayer," he says, "and it was while listening to that, Iused to get flavor after flavor coming in.
It was mostly bacon."Wannerton says his synesthesia causes him some discomfort in hispersonal life. "I've had girlfriends with names I couldn't standsaying.
Tracey is a very strong flavored name and it's flaky-pastry. Whenever I was in her company, that's what I thought ofconstantly." And at the end of the day, he suffers from sensoryoverload.
But still he doesn't want a cure. "I've had it since Ican remember, and taking it away--I wouldn't like the thought ofthat," he says.What's going on inside the synesthete's brain?Dr.
Vilyanur Ramachandran, a neurologist who studies quirks ofthe brain, was scanning the brain of McAllister, a man who seesmusic. During the imaging, the music being played stimulates notonly McAllister's audio cortex, but also his visual cortex.
"Thevisual area lit up in him," says Ramachandran, "so you knowthere was neurological activity in the visual region of hisbrain even though he was only listening to music." McAllisterdescribes it as a "Fantasia-like experience: explosions of colorall over the place. A bright flash of lavender getting dimmerand dimmer; now we're going over a pink staircase, some lavenderviolins.
It looks very beautiful."This is all the more surprising since McAllister is blind! Helost his sight when he was 12, the result of a degenerative eyedisease. But he never lost his synesthesia.Are we all born with joined sensation?Though scientists can prove synesthesia exists physiologically,they still don't know what causes it.
Some researchers thinkcross-wiring in the brain produces the phenomenon. Anothertheory is that everyone is born with synesthesia-that we, asinfants, experience the world as a jumble of interwovensensations.
Then, as most of us mature, our physical sensesslowly become distinct and sharply defined, like images beingbrought into focus by a camera lens. With synesthetes this doesn't happen.For some, synesthetic perceptions seem to exist outside the body.Carrie Schultz describes how she sees electric guitar riffs inpurple swirls that envelop her.For others, the awareness is internal, in their "mind's eye."When Glenda Larcombe hears a truck backing up--making a beep-beep-beep sound--she sees the beeps as a series of red dots.
Themingling of senses is often difficult for synesthetes todescribe. Larcombe, for instance, said the red dots she seeswhen she hears beeping are not part of her actual vision.
"It'snot like I would see a red dot right in front of me-it's in mymind's eye" she says in an interview. She also reports feelingher interviewer's voice, "like a wave, like water, with yellowand orange."Ex-journalist, Page Getz says "God is blue." She describesheadache pain as a kind of greenish-orange, music by the rockgroup Nirvana as having the taste or sensation of Dr Pepper, andthe color after sex as static silver.
She quit her job as ajournalist because her editors' word changes often disruptedwhat she saw as a sentence's natural chromatic progression.Everyone's got blended senses to a degreePsychologist Carol Mills says this sensory-blending abilitymight be a normal part of all adult brains. "It may go on in allof us even if we don't have synesthesia," said Mills.
"Forexample, if I give you a very high-pitched note and a series ofcolors and ask you to match one, you are going to pick a lightcolor. If I give you a low bass note, you are probably going topick a dark color.
The difference is when a synesthete hears alow note, they see dark. When they hear a high note, they see alight color."No firm figures exist for how common synesthesia is.
The bestestimates range from 1 in 200 to 1 in 20,000. Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .