Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes

[Earth_First]

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Music can be a mouth-watering experience for one Swiss musician who "tastes" combinations of notes as distinct flavors, according to a report in the science journal Nature.

The 27-year-old woman known as E.S. is a synaesthete, someone who experiences sensation in more than one sense from the same stimulation, researchers said on Wednesday.

When E.S. hears tone intervals, the difference in pitch between two tones, she not only can see the musical notes as different colors but can taste the sounds.

"This is a special case of a musician who, when she hears tone intervals, she has a perception of a taste of a tone," said psychologist Michaela Esslen, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

http://us.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/03/taste.sounds.reut/index.html

[redqueen]

1. How is that special?

I though synaesthesia was fairly common. Even the one where notes and sounds are 'tasted'.

:shrug:

[Earth_First]

2. Is it? I had no idea...

none.

[redqueen]

3. 1 in 100

Here's an article and a link where you can test to see if you have even a smidgen of this tendency.

I think it's downright fascinating!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=1762779

[BurtWorm]

4. I've heard of people smelling color, but not tasting notes.

I'd hate to find out what Wayne Newton tastes like. :puke:

[redqueen]

5. A person in the article mentioned in the thread I linked above...

'tastes' people's names.

Soooooooo interesting.

[BurtWorm]

7. Does "Wayne Newton" taste like fig, then?

:9

[punpirate]

6. Wonder if she has to...

... stay away from country music? Would every double-flat on the fiddle taste like cowshit? :P

[unblock]

9. actually, it all tastes of chicken.

[tridim]

8. I had that happen in college

It was some really good acid.

[SCantiGOP]

10. you beat me to it

LSD was the only way I ever heard of this happening: hear colors, see sounds, etc.

[Ariana Celeste]

13. I hear that, man.

:hippie:

[AllegroRondo]

11. Seriously

there is a system for training your ears to hear pitches more accurately that equates each tone to a different color. I never tried it myself, but I know a couple musicians who swear it helped them.

[Xithras]

12. Poor woman. I wonder what a Bush speech tastes like.

:puke:

[VelmaD]

14. I have this condition to a certain extent...

I always just thought it came along with having perfect pitch.

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. I have a touch of synaesthesia.

Only with me, there seems to be more of an olfactory response.

Whenever I hear 311, for instance, I smell raw sewage. :shrug:

[RubyCat]

16. What does she taste when they play the "brown note"?