NYT blows the lid off of lexical-gustatory synesthesia

‘Bout time someone did.

Fun article, although I’m glad I don’t share the affliction. Depending upon what you’re reading, you might taste this or you might taste … this:

One subject, Dr. Simner said, hates driving, because the road signs flood his mouth with everything from pistachio ice cream to ear wax.

On the upside, it’s a strong incentive not to curse.

Exit question: will the blogosphere’s most famous synesthete throw me a pity link here? Or is his alleged synesthesia just something he made up to impress chicks and add to the Instamystique?

Update: More freaky deaky taste-related science:

One in four people is what scientists call a supertaster, born with extra taste buds. “They live in a neon taste world,” as Bartoshuk puts it.

They find some vegetables horribly bitter, and hate the texture. They get more burn from chili peppers, and perceive more sweetness than other people. Nor do they care for fat. They tend to be skinny because they’re such picky eaters.

Scientists came up with the name because these people give an extreme “Yuck!” when given a certain bitter chemical widely used in taste research — a chemical that certain other people, dubbed nontasters, can’t even detect.

Those nontasters make up another quarter of the population. They like veggies, but unfortunately prefer heart-clogging fat, too, along with sweets and alcohol.

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