WEBVTT 00:00:14.504 --> 00:00:15.747 Imagine a world 00:00:15.747 --> 00:00:17.892 in which you see numbers and letters as colored 00:00:17.892 --> 00:00:19.750 even though they're printed in black, 00:00:19.750 --> 00:00:21.833 in which music or voices trigger a swirl 00:00:21.833 --> 00:00:23.922 of moving, colored shapes, 00:00:23.922 --> 00:00:25.858 in which words and names fill your mouth 00:00:25.858 --> 00:00:27.592 with unusual flavors. 00:00:27.592 --> 00:00:30.437 Jail tastes like cold, hard bacon 00:00:30.437 --> 00:00:33.123 while Derek tastes like earwax. 00:00:34.091 --> 00:00:35.807 Welcome to synesthesia, 00:00:35.807 --> 00:00:37.072 the neurological phenomenon 00:00:37.072 --> 00:00:41.032 that couples two or more senses in 4% of the population. 00:00:41.032 --> 00:00:43.505 A synesthete might not only hear my voice, 00:00:43.505 --> 00:00:44.413 but also see it, 00:00:44.413 --> 00:00:44.920 taste it, 00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:47.555 or feel it as a physical touch. 00:00:48.771 --> 00:00:51.065 Sharing the same root with anesthesia, 00:00:51.065 --> 00:00:52.400 meaning no sensation, 00:00:52.400 --> 00:00:55.152 synesthesia means joined sensation. 00:00:55.152 --> 00:00:57.446 Having one type, such as colored hearing, 00:00:57.446 --> 00:00:59.699 gives you a 50% chance of having a second, 00:00:59.699 --> 00:01:00.116 third, 00:01:00.116 --> 00:01:01.609 or fourth type. 00:01:03.702 --> 00:01:06.764 One in 90 among us experience graphemes, 00:01:06.764 --> 00:01:08.312 the written elements of language, 00:01:08.312 --> 00:01:08.975 like letters, 00:01:08.975 --> 00:01:09.434 numerals, 00:01:09.434 --> 00:01:10.797 and punctuation marks, 00:01:10.797 --> 00:01:12.850 as saturated with color. 00:01:12.850 --> 00:01:15.313 Some even have gender or personality. 00:01:15.313 --> 00:01:19.502 For Gail, 3 is athletic and sporty, 00:01:19.502 --> 00:01:22.319 9 is a vain, elitist girl. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.694 By contrast, the sound units of language, 00:01:24.694 --> 00:01:25.946 or phonemes, 00:01:25.946 --> 00:01:27.863 trigger synestetic tastes. 00:01:27.863 --> 00:01:30.369 For James, college tastes like sausage, 00:01:30.369 --> 00:01:32.411 as does message and similar words 00:01:32.411 --> 00:01:34.206 with the -age ending. 00:01:35.699 --> 00:01:38.542 Synesthesia is a trait, like having blue eyes, 00:01:38.542 --> 00:01:40.125 rather than a disorder 00:01:40.125 --> 00:01:41.754 because there's nothing wrong. 00:01:41.754 --> 00:01:43.104 In fact, all the extra hooks 00:01:43.104 --> 00:01:45.997 endow synesthetes with superior memories. 00:01:45.997 --> 00:01:49.309 For example, a girl runs into someone she met long ago. 00:01:49.309 --> 00:01:51.346 "Let's see, she had a green name. 00:01:51.346 --> 00:01:52.310 D's are green: 00:01:52.310 --> 00:01:52.847 Debra, 00:01:52.847 --> 00:01:53.229 Darby, 00:01:53.229 --> 00:01:53.646 Dorothy, 00:01:53.646 --> 00:01:54.146 Denise. 00:01:54.146 --> 00:01:56.920 Yes! Her name is Denise!" 00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:58.359 Once established in childhood, 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:00.736 pairings remain fixed for life. 00:02:00.736 --> 00:02:03.254 Synesthetes inherit a biological propensity 00:02:03.254 --> 00:02:05.282 for hyperconnecting brain neurons, 00:02:05.282 --> 00:02:08.017 but then must be exposed to cultural artifacts, 00:02:08.017 --> 00:02:08.870 such as calendars, 00:02:08.870 --> 00:02:09.536 food names, 00:02:09.536 --> 00:02:11.245 and alphabets. 00:02:11.245 --> 00:02:13.833 The amazing thing is that a single nucleotide change 00:02:13.833 --> 00:02:17.378 in the sequence of one's DNA alters perception. 00:02:17.378 --> 00:02:19.793 In this way, synesthesia provides a path 00:02:19.793 --> 00:02:22.049 to understanding subjective differences, 00:02:22.049 --> 00:02:25.385 how two people can see the same thing differently. 00:02:25.385 --> 00:02:27.972 Take Sean, who prefers blue tasting food, 00:02:27.972 --> 00:02:30.303 such as milk, oranges, and spinach. 00:02:30.303 --> 00:02:32.691 The gene heightens normally occurring connections 00:02:32.691 --> 00:02:34.939 between the taste area in his frontal lobe 00:02:34.939 --> 00:02:37.481 and the color area further back. 00:02:37.481 --> 00:02:39.269 But suppose in someone else 00:02:39.269 --> 00:02:41.683 that the gene acted in non-sensory areas. 00:02:41.683 --> 00:02:43.579 You would then have the ability to link 00:02:43.579 --> 00:02:45.772 seemingly unrelated things, 00:02:45.772 --> 00:02:47.948 which is the definition of metaphor, 00:02:47.948 --> 00:02:50.787 seeing the similar in the dissimilar. 00:02:50.787 --> 00:02:52.997 Not surprisingly, synesthesia is more common 00:02:52.997 --> 00:02:55.374 in artists who excel at making metaphors, 00:02:55.374 --> 00:02:57.541 like novelist Vladimir Nabokov, 00:02:57.541 --> 00:02:59.293 painter David Hockney, 00:02:59.293 --> 00:03:00.693 and composers Billy Joel 00:03:00.693 --> 00:03:02.219 and Lady Gaga. 00:03:04.142 --> 00:03:06.002 But why do the rest of us non-synesthetes 00:03:06.002 --> 00:03:08.583 understand metaphors like "sharp cheese" 00:03:08.583 --> 00:03:10.632 or "sweet person"? 00:03:10.632 --> 00:03:12.009 It so happens that sight, 00:03:12.009 --> 00:03:12.342 sound, 00:03:12.342 --> 00:03:12.891 and movement 00:03:12.891 --> 00:03:15.300 already map to one another so closely, 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:17.732 that even bad ventriloquists convince us 00:03:17.732 --> 00:03:19.646 that the dummy is talking. 00:03:19.646 --> 00:03:21.478 Movies, likewise, can convince us 00:03:21.478 --> 00:03:23.526 that the sound is coming from the actors' mouths 00:03:23.526 --> 00:03:25.694 rather than surrounding speakers. 00:03:25.694 --> 00:03:28.447 So, inwardly, we're all synesthetes, 00:03:28.447 --> 00:03:30.449 outwardly unaware of the perceptual couplings 00:03:30.449 --> 00:03:32.533 happening all the time. 00:03:32.533 --> 00:03:34.748 Cross-talk in the brain is the rule, 00:03:34.748 --> 00:03:36.435 not the exception. 00:03:37.643 --> 00:03:41.010 And that sounds like a sweet deal to me!