1. Synesthesia

2. Synesthesia: Synesthesia is the extraordinary sensory condition in which stimulation of one sensation leads to perceptual experience in another. Synesthesia is the extraordinary sensory condition in which stimulation of one sensation leads to perceptual experience in another. Literally, the term means “to perceive together.” Literally, the term means “to perceive together.”

3. The Man Who Tasted Shapes Neurologist Richard Cytowic describes the case of Michael Watson, who feels shapes when he tastes or smells food. After tasting a sauce he was making for chicken, he complained, “There aren’t enough points on the chicken.” When Cytowic asked him what he meant, Watson explained that all flavors had shape for him: “I wanted the taste of this chicken to be a pointed shape, but it came out all round. Well, I mean it’s spherical. I can’t serve this if it doesn’t have points.” For Watson, intense flavors elicit an experience of shape that sweeps down his arms to his fingertips. Some taste shapes, like points, are experienced over his entire body. Others are felt only on the face, back, or shoulders. Cytowic devised an entire set of geometric figures that allowed Watson to communicate which shapes he associated with which flavors.

4. The Colors of Pain Other people with synesthesia see colors in response to pain. Gail Martino and Lawrence Marks describe the case of Carol, a professional artist, who fell and damaged her leg while climbing on rocks at the beach. She diagnosed the severity of her accident by the intensity of orange that spread across her mind’s eye. She said, “When I saw that everything was orange, I knew I should be rushed to the hospital.”

5. Diagnostic Criteria It is involuntary and insuppressible, but must be elicited by some external stimulus. They are durable – if the taste of a lemon is perceived as a pointed shape, it will always be perceived this way. Synesthetic perceptions are vividly remembered, often in place of the stimulus that triggered them (“She had a green name – I forget, it was either or Vivian.”) Synesthetes have a strong conviction that what they perceive is real – their sensations are accompanied by very strong and emotional feelings of validity.

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