Chapter 1. Synesthesia: The Man Who Tastes Words

Short Description

This clip is a case study in synesthesia, a disorder in which stimulation of one sense leads to the experience of another. James not only hears words, he tastes them. He runs a pub and the names of different customers elicit different flavors. James has no control over the links he experiences between specific words and specific tastes.

Long Description

This clip is a case study in synesthesia, a disorder in which stimulation of one sense leads to the experience of another. James not only hears words, he tastes them. He runs a pub and the names of different customers elicit different flavors. James has no control over the links he experiences between specific words and specific tastes. Interestingly, the foods that customers order can elicit tastes different from that that of the food itself. In everyday conversation, James is bombarded with flavors. As he cooks food for his customers, its odor may compete with the flavors elicited by the words of their ongoing conversation. For example, while frying sausage and eggs, James may find that the conversation elicits the taste of yogurt. Clearly, James finds the conflict to be distressing. He escapes to fresh outdoor air. The narrator reports that synesthesia has baffled the scientific community for decades. No one could believe it was real. After establishing a genetic basis for the phenomenon, researchers are now searching for environmental influences that may shape each person's synesthesia. Neuropsychologist Jamie Ward has been studying James for two years. He has found that James consistently links the same words to the same tastes. Ward searches for a pattern that might explain how the links were first formed. In his study, he finds that similar sounding words elicit much the same taste in James. For Ward, this structure provides clues to how the synesthesia formed. He discovers that the links James has formed between words and tastes are of tastes James experienced in childhood. James does not have linkages between words and foods he tasted only in adulthood. In short, the associations he has formed seem to be part of the process of vocabulary acquisition in early life. Ward suggests that an unusual chaining occurred between the sounds of words and both the names and tastes of food in James' childhood.

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