Tasting colours and seeing sound: Synaesthesia
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“One hears a sound but recollects a hue, invisible the hands that touch your heartstrings,
Cite this article:
Fuge L (2012-11-07 00:30:18). Tasting colours and seeing sound: Synaesthesia. Australian Science. Retrieved: Apr 25, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/history/tasting-colours-and-seeing-sound-synaesthesia/
Fuge L (2012-11-07 00:30:18). Tasting colours and seeing sound: Synaesthesia. Australian Science. Retrieved: Apr 25, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/history/tasting-colours-and-seeing-sound-synaesthesia/
Oh that we could have had living science such as this at school! I’m sure more pupils would have switched on, instead of yawning through the abstractions on the blackboard.
I do recall synaesthesia as a seven year old: certain shapes would instantly trigger a word in my head. A useful starting point for discussion of perception/association etc – but there was just nobody to ask, no slot in the curriculum – and alas no Google. Now the capacity has evaporated and, who knows, it might have been a foundation for poetry.
As for ‘thinking skills’ for young people… they took another 50 years to appear here in UK, while French schools were well ahead. Here’s to Lauren and all people who have an enquiring passion for science, and for communicating it.
As a kid I thought everyone experienced the world as I did: sounds and the feeling of touch on my skin had color, words had taste… I grew older but some of these remained, the strongest being touch-color.
I was in shock many years ago when I read an article on Scientific American about synaesthesia and immediately identified my “condition”: I was one of them!
It is nice to know my brain is wired like this and it drove me even more to my field of work and passion, neuroscience. I hope I can step inside of this subject and help uncover what’s behind this beautiful and amazing machine called brain.