Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gang ah jee]

[Woland]

Here ya go, JeJuJitsu - a link from today's NY Times, reporting a study of gustatory-lexical synaesthesia (in which people taste words) to appear in the journal Nature.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/science/23tastecnd.html?hp&ex=1164258000&en=c5d50415aad0473b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

A sample quote:

"People who have synaesthesia � a rare condition that runs in families � have �joined senses.� They �see� letters or numbers or musical notes as colors � a capital A will be tinged red, or 5 plus 2 will equal blue, or B.B. King will play the yellows.

Rare as that is, there is an even rarer variation, said Julia Simner, a cognitive neuropsychologist and synaesthesia expert at the University of Edinburgh. Lexical-gustatories involuntarily �taste� words when they hear them, or even try to recall them, she wrote in a study, �Words on the Tip of the Tongue,� published in the issue of Nature dated Thursday. She has found only 10 such people in Europe and the United States.

Magnetic-resonance imaging indicates that they are not faking, she said. The correct words light up the taste regions of their brains. Also, when given a surprise test a year later, they taste the same foods on hearing the words again."

[JeJuJitsu]

[gang ah jee]

[Woland]

[JeJuJitsu]

[Mr. Friday]

I'm new here (to this board, not even in the ROK yet) so I held my tounge at first. But I have to speak up and agree that, JeJuJitsu, you're coming off like a thick-headed jerk.

Synesthetics (sp?) don't claim that '3' actually is 'orange' (for example) -- 'orange' is just part of how they perceive '3' (or the taste of bitter, or the sound of B#, or what have you).

I find this sort of neuro-atypical functionality fascinating. Doesn't it engender any sense of wonder in you?; about what insight it may give into how our brains work that this could be a normal state for some, or even that the rest of us are even capable of getting a sample of it from some chemicals?

Heck, a fundamental element of much creativity is loose metaphorical thinking... how cool is it that some of us are born 'seeing' just how purple the stink of a too-loud electric guitar is?

(thanks to Frank Zappa for the phrase I just borrowed)

JJJ - you seem to have a PBE: problem between the ears.

[Mr. Friday]

<slaps palm on forehead>

"The 1st rule of the internet: don't feed the trolls"

So... does this board have a kill-file/idiot-filter feature?

<wanders off to RTFM...>

[JeJuJitsu]

[jajdude]

Google gives 764,000 results for a search on "Synesthesia"

If you see any books by Oliver Sacks, check 'em out.

[gang ah jee]

[sillywilly]

I don't have it.

[Muffin]

I thought this was a totally non-controversial topic - how wrong I was! Thanks for the supportive posts.

Thanks also to everyone who has posted interesting links I have enjoyed reading all the info.