Some People Really Do See What You’re Saying

Women, it turns out, aren’t the only ones with an edge when it comes to sensual perspicacity. According to Washington neurologist Richard Cytowic, people with a rare disease known as synesthesia can literally see sounds or feel taste--giving new meaning to the phrase, “I see what you’re saying.”

People who suffer from the condition, which appears when part of the brain shuts down, can see shapes in a spoken name, feel an aroma or hear music when they see colors, Cytowic says. Most have “colored hearing,” seeing visions of colors when they hear specific sounds.

One woman saw “orange and yellow sherbet foam” when she kissed her boyfriend. Another of Cytowic’s patients said he was surprised as a boy to discover that his father was using white paint because, he explained, the paint smelled blue.

Cytowic said his brain studies using radioactive xenon have demonstrated that part of the brain is, in effect, being turned off during a synesthesia experience.

“Synesthesia may be a remnant of the way early men viewed the world before his cortex opened (in the brain), grew more complex and began separating his senses,” he said at a recent annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science.