Eat Your Words? Some Can Taste Them

Nov. 22, 2006 -- Life is a feast -- literally -- for some people with a rare condition called synesthesia, a new study shows. Words are often experienced as tastes by them.

In synesthesia, people have unusual sensory experiences. For instance, someone with synesthesia might "hear" a sound when they see the color red.

Nature's latest issue includes a brief report on six people with a version of synesthesia in which they experience tastes upon hearing certain words.

The researchers include Julia Simner, DPhil, of the psychology department at Scotland's University of Edinburgh.

In an email to WebMD, Simner discusses her findings.

Participants in the study ranged in age from the early 20s to one lady in her 80s, Simner says. Five were female, one male. One was British, the rest American.

All had had synesthesia as long as they could remember and experienced food tastes in response to words, she says.

"The proportion of words that triggers taste varies from synaesthete to synaesthete, and for those in our study it ranged from about 15% of words, to one lady who experiences tastes for 100% of words," Simner says.

Tastes Like Earwax

Participants reported some elaborate taste sensations with words.

"All their tastes represent complex food experiences (e.g., salad with Caesar dressing; lightly buttered toast; the vanilla cream you get inside donuts) and some are brand-specific (e.g., Heinz tomato soup)," says Simner.

"Some tastes can be rather unpleasant, as for example, with the small number of words that trigger the taste of 'organic inedibles' (e.g., earwax)," she notes.

That specific type of synesthesia "is particularly rare -- so rare in fact that we don't have an exact idea of its prevalence," says Simner.

Perk or Pest?

Most people with synesthesia -- whom Simner calls synaesthetes -- don't mind having the condition, she says.

"The vast majority of synaesthetes see it in one of three ways: either they love it, or they're neutral ('It's like having a little finger -- it's just there'), or they think everyone has it," she says.

"Only a very small number are less keen, and these tend to be either those people who have a very large number of sensory crossings (e.g. one lady hears colours, sees sounds, tastes shapes, etc.) or they are those people who experience tastes," she says.

"Tastes seem to be particularly intrusive and can cause problems for those who experience them," Simner notes.

For example, she says one man who experiences tastes with words told her he finds the sensations "very distracting: they interfere in meetings, when he's reading, when he's driving and looking at road signs, etc."

"However, even he said he'd not lose it [synesthesia] if he had the choice," she adds.