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August 16, 2013

Strange But True!

Q. When asked how the chicken tasted, M.W. was apt to say something like, “There aren't enough points on it.” And he wasn't just using a figure of speech. What was going on?

A. He had the rare capacity of “synesthesia,” occurring in 1 in every 25,000 people, where one sense blends with another to the point that shapes may have tastes, music may have colors, say Bryan Kolb and Ian Whishaw in “An Introduction to Brain and Behavior,” citing research by neurologist Richard Cytowic. All his life, when tasting or smelling foods, M.W. felt this taste-shape experience sweeping down his arms to his fingertips: Some would engulf his whole body; others were more like cones, pyramids, balls, cubes that he felt only on his face, shoulders or back.


 
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