The picture of a phonograph was flashed in front of the woman-- a participant in a psychological research experiment. One would expect her to knit her brows in confusion, or ask the researcher beside her what it was. But she's seen it before and she knows it-- it's at the tip of her tongue!
"I know what that is…um…um…Oh! I'm tasting Dutch chocolate and I don't know why!" (Than, 2006)
If asked a week later, or maybe even decades later through the phone: "Hello, we did this study on you…Can you tell me what 'phonograph' tastes of?' " the woman would say, with little hestitation "Yeah, it tastes of Dutch chocolate."
But chances are, as you read this and continue looking at the picture or continue saying "phonograph," the taste of Dutch chocolate will not enter your mouth.
Unless, of course, you have lexical-gustatory synesthesia.
*MENTION DEFINITION FROM OUR BOOK*
There are different types of synesthesia, some more common than others. One of the rarer forms is lexical-gustatory synesthesia where people can taste words-- whether seen, heard or thought (Inglis-Arkell, 2011). Sometimes, they word for the food tastes like the food itself, the way "cheese" tastes like crumbly cheese for James Wannerton. But other times, names sound like foodstuffs too, where Richard tastes stronger, processed cheese and Janette tastes like bacon. Even languages can taste like something. For James, French tastes like runny egg but German tastes of marmalade (Giles, 2011).
For these people, the words are like a feast that you taste every time someone says it. This is one of the main differences of those with this kind of synesthesia have with us-- the word to taste correspondence is nearly 100% accurate even after decades in between asking for this information. This is not a trick of memory, but one of perception (Than, 2006).
Lexical-gustatory synesthesia also lets the person taste a word even if they have never eaten anything that tasted quite like it. As Johanna Beyenbach (2013) related, she first tasted "couch" when she was five without knowing what the word tasted similar to until she had her first taste of potato empanada, to which she shouted out "OH MY GOD, IT'S COUCH!"
But isn't it just a little too easy to say that "couch tastes like potato empanada" ? How can you tell if someone has synesthesia or if someone is simply not as honest as you thought they were?
It would be possible if you had an MRI. A brain scan would show that the areas of the brain that light up when a person without synesthesia is eating and the parts of the brain that light up when a person with synesthesia is listening to particular words are the same (Giles, 2011). This is physiological evidence of synesthesia. These people are not simply saying that they taste it-- their brain really does sense the taste.
But what about for the rest of those who do not have synesthesia?
According to recent studies, there are also links between music and taste in those who do not have this type of synesthesia. There are certain kinds of music that are associated with the tastes bitter and sweet-- high pitched and piano music are sweeter and low pitched brass instrument are considered bitter. When participants for another study were given toffee of the same recipe while exposing them to either the "sweet" or the "bitter" music, their perception of taste was changed according to the music they listened to (Chatterjee, 2012).
Even in those without synesthesia, what we hear influences what we taste.
As shown in the article, our senses do not work in isolation with each other. Other senses that do not seem to work together, like hearing and taste, influence our perceptions of each other. In this amazing world and because of these connections in our brains, we can all say...
Chatterjee, Rhitu. (2012). Can You Taste The Differences Between Sounds? The World. Retrieved from http://www.theworld.org/2012/02/tasting-music/
Giles, C. (2011). The man who can taste sounds. Wellcome Trust. Retrieved from http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2011/05/26/the-man-who-can-taste-sounds/
Inglis-Arkell, E. (2011). Lexical-Gustatory Synesthesia: When People Taste Words. Mad Science. Retrieved from http://io9.com/5847521/lexical+gustatory-synesthesia-when-people-taste-words
Than, K. (2006). New Insight into People Who Taste Words. Live Science. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/1141-insight-people-taste-words.html
[Untitled photograph of a phonograph] Retrieved from http://www.yalescientific.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/features-musictech-1.jpg
[Untitled photograph of words and their associated tastes] Retrieved from http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8245/8508792856_369b19d320_z.jpg
