Category: News and Views
I found the following article at The New York Times and wanted to share it.
In case the link doesn't work, and for the purely masochistic who want to type it into their computer, the url is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/science/23tastecnd.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1164258000&en=c5d50415aad0473b&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin#articleBodyLink
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The New York Times
November 22, 2006
For Some, the Words Just Roll Off the Tongue
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
For the big dinner on Thursday, perhaps a plump bird stuffed with Stephanie and served with giblet civil, accompanied by roast Londons, a bowl of performs
with pearl unions, and marshmallow-topped microscopes. And, for dessert, city a la mode, followed by a confession.
No, your eyes do not deceive you. But if you were a lexical-gustatory synaesthete, your tongue might — and you would already feel full.
People who have synaesthesia — a rare condition that runs in families — have “joined senses.” They “see” letters or numbers or musical notes as colors —
a capital A will be tinged red, or 5 plus 2 will equal blue, or
B.B. King
will play the yellows.
Rare as that is, there is an even rarer variation, said Julia Simner, a cognitive neuropsychologist and synaesthesia expert at the University of Edinburgh.
Lexical-gustatories involuntarily “taste” words when they hear them, or even try to recall them, she wrote in a study, “Words on the Tip of the Tongue,”
published in the issue of Nature dated Thursday. She has found only 10 such people in Europe and the United States.
Magnetic-resonance imaging indicates that they are not faking, she said. The correct words light up the taste regions of their brains. Also, when given
a surprise test a year later, they taste the same foods on hearing the words again.
(Synaesthetes are hardly ever described as “suffering from” the syndrome, because their doubled perceptions excite envy in many of us mere sensual Muggles.)
It can be unpleasant, however. One subject, Dr. Simner said, hates driving, because the road signs flood his mouth with everything from pistachio ice cream
to ear wax.
And Dr. Simner has yet to figure out any logical pattern.
For example, the word “mince” makes one subject taste mincemeat, but so do rhymes like “prince.” Words with a soft “g,” as in “roger” or “edge,” make him
taste sausage. But another subject, hearing “castanets,” tastes tuna fish. Another can taste only proper names: John is his cornbread, William his potatoes.
They cannot explain the links, she said. There is no Proustian madeleine moment — the flavors are just there.
But all have had the condition since childhood, so chocolate is commonly tasted, while olives and gin are not.
And, sadly, even her American subjects don’t seem overwhelmed by salivary Thanksgiving memories.
Dr. Simner tests hundreds of words, and when she was asked to check her list for today’s dinner ingredients, she came up with “Stephanie” linked to sage
stuffing, “civil” to gravy, “London” and “head” to potato, “perform” to peas, “union” to onions, “microscope” to carrots, “city” to mince pie and “confess”
to coffee.
But, alas, no turkey. Or cranberry sauce.
“I can give you a whole fry-up English breakfast,” she said apologetically. “But not a Thanksgiving dinner.”
Thanks,
Bob
This is a form of Californian beach bum dieting right? YOu know sounds filling tastes great, and best of all no calories!
Fascinating. I've heard of the bit about seeing colors associated with certain words, and I have this to a certain degree, but the taste thing is really weird.
I never heard about the taste thing before, but it sounds like it could be interesting