Can You Actually Taste the Rainbow?

When talking about the senses, although I really enjoyed hearing about where all of different waves and energy is transduced, I was most interested in the idea of synesthesia. Last week I wrote about the manipulation and mixing of different senses, but I looked at the concept more from an artistic point of view. I did not realize that synesthesia is a real condition. It basically mixes up your senses--the stimulation of one sense produces an experience in a different sense. People with synesthesia might be able to taste colors, feel numbers, or see sounds. One in 27 people have some sort of synesthesia.

I read one article written by a person who has synesthesia. He associates sounds with shapes and textures and sees letters and numbers in colors. Jaime Smith smells in colors and shapes. He even uses this ability in his job analyzing wines. Pastry chef, Taria Camerino, can taste basically anything--music, colors, shapes--you name it. Sean Day, president of the American Synesthesia Association, has been researching this condition for years. He says that the brains of people with synesthesia do appear to be different than those who do not have this condition. The neural connections between different sensory parts of the brain are more myelinated in people with synesthesia. Since the myelination (the fatty sheath that surrounds neurons that cause neural signals to move faster) is different, the interactions between different parts of the brain are different as well. This basically means that since there is more myelin in some brains, different senses end up interacting when normally they shouldn't be.

Although the myelin theory is widely accepted, there are many other theories that attempt to explain this odd condition. One theory is that the irregular "growing" of new neural connections within the brain leads to the breakdown of boundaries in the brain causing the different senses to communicate. Another theory says that all infants begin life with synesthesia (other theories suggest that infants really have only one sense--all the 5 senses in one). Their brains are so immature that their senses are still connected, but when they mature, these sensory connections become blocked. The small percentage of people who's brains do not create these "boundaries" as they mature, continue to have these synesthesic experiences.

Although we are not sure exactly which parts of the brain are involved in synesthesia, it is most commonly thought that the limbic system--which controls emotion--and the cerebral cortex are responsible.  Studies have shown that those who hear in colors have been known to display activity in several areas of the visual cortex when they hear certain words. Areas of the visual cortex associated with processing color are activated when the synesthetes hear words. Those without the condition do not show activity in these areas, even when asked to imagine colors or to associate certain colors with certain words.

After researching this disease, I am pretty fascinated. The experiences that people with synesthesia describe are incredible. Some people use their condition everyday to help them, like the pastry chef. Others I read about have a more difficult time seeing their condition as a beneficial tool. Some people can't go out to eat because all of the voices or colors disrupt their appetite. One guy said that if you serve him food on a blue plate it will mess up his whole eating sensation.

Well, guys, what do you think? Could synesthesia be a good thing? Would you want to have it? I mean, if you really want to know what it feels like all you have to do is try LSD.

Jokes. Do not try LSD. That is never a good plan, which I'm sure you've figured out by doing your chapter 5 assignment. Anyway, let me know what y'all think in the comments.