People Who Feel, Taste and Hear Color Not Crazy; It's a Rare But Real Condition

Teresa Neumann reporting : Feb 25, 2005
Live Science

A University of Maine junior, 20-yr old Ingrid Carey doesn't just see colors; she tastes, hears, smells and feels them too, and she's not alone. Ingrid has a rare neurological condition called synesthesia, in which two or more of the body's senses entwine. For her, numbers and letters, sensations and emotions, days and months are all associated with colors.

According to "Live Science," colors in Carey's world "have properties that most of us would never dream of: red is solid, powerful and consistent, while yellow is pliable, brilliant and intense. Chocolate is rich purple and makes Carey’s breath smell dark blue. Confusion is orange."

Not surprisingly, for many years synesthesia was an unrecognized condition, dismissed as mental illness. But it is now accepted by scientists as an actual phenomenon with a real neurological explanation, some researches believe studying those with the condition could yield valuable clues as to how the brain works, and it may explain why certain drugs can induce synesthesia in some individuals.

The cause remains a mystery, with one researcher theorizing that "babies don’t have five distinct senses but rather one all-encompassing sense that responds to the total amount of incoming stimulation. So when a baby hears her mother’s voice, she is also seeing it and smelling it."