Armed Polite Society

Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Darkmind on March 06, 2005, 12:22:24 AM

Title: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: Darkmind on March 06, 2005, 12:22:24 AM
Some one needs to tell her to lay off the LSD!

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


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.

"She doesn't imagine the taste, she really tastes it."

The case of E.S. reported in Nature is exceptional because seeing letters or digits in a certain color is more common in synaesthesia. It may also involve seeing a musical tone as a color.

But E.S. sees the colors and depending on the tone intervals a symphony could be bittersweet, salty, sour or creamy.

"Whenever she hears a specific musical interval, she automatically experiences a taste on her tongue that is consistently linked to that particular interval," the scientists said in the journal.

They tested E.S.'s ability by applying solutions tasting sour, bitter, salty or sweet to her tongue and asking her to identify the tone intervals, a difficult task that requires musical training.

When the applied tastes corresponded with the intervals she was able to identify them quicker than other musicians.

"We found that E.S.'s tone-interval identification was perfect," the researchers said.
Title: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: garyk/nm on March 06, 2005, 02:36:44 AM
Wonder what gangsta rap tastes like? Oh, wait, you said music.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: 230RN on October 14, 2020, 06:34:04 AM
Thinking about it, I guess there can be weird nerve interactions.  I've noticed things like getting an itch on my calf and when I scratch if, I feel it on my side under my arm.  Stuff like that just as an example.

Then there's pain "radiations" like in a heart attack and appendicitis.

This one is good in that it's so specific and repeatable.

Science likes "repeatable," otherwise it's just "anecdotal."

Doesn't somebody on this board have an avatar or personal text something like "I see sounds"?

Terry, 230RN
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: Fly320s on October 14, 2020, 06:45:58 AM
I wonder if they checked her brain for a tumor.  Seriously.  My mother-in-law had a brain tumor that caused he to smell and taste things that weren't there.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: Perd Hapley on October 14, 2020, 07:01:07 AM
After fifteen years, you'd think there would be some kind of update on this. But no.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: HankB on October 14, 2020, 07:45:16 AM
What smells purple?*







* - that was the punchline from an old sci-fi story I read as a kid. Seems relevant to "tasting" notes.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: 230RN on October 14, 2020, 08:29:47 AM
^ Don't know what sf story that was but it brought to mind when Marge was telling Homer he needed to eat more fruit.

So Homer replies, "What about jelly donuts?  They're purple inside.  Purple is a fruit."

:)

Irrelevant to OP, just came to mind.

Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: AJ Dual on October 14, 2020, 09:48:10 AM
After fifteen years, you'd think there would be some kind of update on this. But no.

Thread necro smells kind of dusty. Like a garage or basement.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: Pb on October 14, 2020, 10:05:37 AM
Seeing numbers as colors is one of the most common forms of synesthesia.

Even some people who are completely colorblind can see colors when they see numbers.

I once knew a woman who saw auruas around people (mine was orange).

I suspect that is a form of synthasia also.

Anyone know of someone with synthasia?
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: freakazoid on October 14, 2020, 11:09:39 AM
Seeing numbers as colors is one of the most common forms of synesthesia.

Even some people who are completely colorblind can see colors when they see numbers.

I once knew a woman who saw auruas around people (mine was orange).

I suspect that is a form of synthasia also.

Anyone know of someone with synthasia?

Like when they see the number 1 written in black ink on a piece of paper it will actually look blue? ???
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: K Frame on October 14, 2020, 11:32:58 AM
Sheldon Cooper: It wasn't difficult. You know how when you see prime numbers they appear red but when they're twin primes they're pink and smell like gasoline?

Raj Koothrappali: No.

Sheldon Cooper: Huh, I guess I'm a special boy. You know, sometimes when a boy is special he gets a Fudgsicle. Which, by the way, tastes like the speed of light.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: Pb on October 14, 2020, 02:33:06 PM
Like when they see the number 1 written in black ink on a piece of paper it will actually look blue? ???

Yes.  Exactly like that.
Title: Re: Report: Woman 'tastes' musical notes
Post by: Doggy Daddy on October 20, 2020, 01:15:05 AM
What smells purple?

Disregarding any tone interval effects between the two, you do know the main difference between pink and purple, right?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The grip.