A Curious Case of Auditory-Gustatory Synesthesia... in someone who can ' t smell

 A fascinating case study from 1907 describes the self-reported sensory “taste” experiences evoked by hearing specific words, names, or sounds (Pierce, 1907). The subject was a young woman about to graduate from college. As far as she could tell, she ' s always had these experiences, and for most of her life she didn ' t know they were unusual. Thissurprise upon discovering the uniqueness of one ' s one internal experience is similar to what is reported by many contemporary individuals with less typical phenomenology, such asaphantasia (the inability to generate visual images).Pierce noted that the subject was anosmic (had a loss of smell), although this was not formally tested. Nonetheless, he observed:Coffee burning upon a stove is not noticed, though she may be close by. Camphor placed in the nostrils gives only a stinging sensation. Ammonia can be sniffed without discomfort. And, as with all anosmics, foods are discriminated on the basis of the pure taste qualities, or by the characters of texture, astringency, and so on, which any food-complex may possess. These sensory defects are worth noting for their possible significance in connection with the theory of this special case of syn æsthesia. Some aspects of the report were rather quaint by modern standards (e.g., the first person narration), but others were quite prescient.But what evidence have we that an actual case of syn æsthesia is here being reported, and not a case of artificial association due to...
Source: The Neurocritic - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: blogs