BBC: People who can taste words

Many people have favourites- a favortie color, a favorite flavour, a favorite word. What's yours, Neil?

Hmm, my favorite color is green, my favorite flavour is sweet-and-sour, and, well, I don't know if it's my favorite, but there is a word I really like sayig out loud- 'nincompoop'. It means a silly person. 

For rem, it's teh taste of coffe, and the smell of lavender or freshly baked bread. 

Our favorite tastes, amells and colors are controlled by our five senses- sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. For most of us they don't mix. We see colors and taste flavours, but we can't taste sounds. 

But that's not how everyone's brain works. Imagine being able to 'taste' every word that you hear. In this programme, we'll meet two sisters from Glasgow in Scotland who can do just that. And as usual, we'll learn some new vocabulary as well. 

Julie McDowell and her younger sister, Jen McCready, have synasthesia, a neurological condition where two or more senses mix together. When synesthetes, as they'dre called, hear a word, their sense of taste also becomes activated. Words produce specific tastes on their tongues. For example, when Jen hears the name of ther daughter, Sophia, she tastes pink marshmallows! And the name 'Leo' tastes like noodles. 

We'll hear more from the unusual sisters later, but first I have a question for you, Neil. We've just heard what happens when Jen McCready hears the names 'Sophia', and 'Leo', but what does she taste when she hears the name 'Neil'?

a) eggs and bacon   b) spaghetti hoops     or c) a jam sandwich?

Well, I don't know what this says about me, Sam, but I'm going to guess that it's c) a jam sandwich. 

OK. Don't worry, Neil- I'll reveal the answer later in the programme. Synaesthesia isn;t only about people, like Julie and Jen, who taste words- it can be a mixing of any of our senses. A synesthete may hear colors or see sounds. In fact, there could be as many as 150 different types of synaesthesia. 

For the Scottish sisters, having synaesthesia is a gift, something Jen explained when she talked with BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain:

This is enjoyable, it's never anything that causes...the only thing I would say is it's quite hard if you're trying to eat healthyily because if you hear a word that maybe tastes like tuna, I'll be like, 'Oh, I need to get a tune baguette now'... You know, it's almost like being pregnant and having a craving... words can be so vivid that you want to eat that- that's the only negative I would say about it. 

For Jen, the only drawback to synaesthesia is that it can be hard to eat healthily because hearing certain words produces a craving- a strong feeling of wanting a particular food. 

That could be becaue, fro Jen, the sound of the word is so vivid- clear, detailed, and powerful in her mind. 

There's still much doctors don't know about why some people experience sense mixing while most of us experience each sense in isolation, but it's clear that for Julie and Jen, synaesthesia makes the world a more interesting, colorful place. 

Someone who can explaine why so little is known about synaesthesia is Guy Leschziner, consultant neurologist at King's College London, and author of the book, 'The Man Who Tasted Words'. Here he is speaking to BBC World Servic's, The Food Chain;