Synesthesia

J-Walk has a post linking to an article in LiveScience about synesthesia. I've known about this for only a year or two, but it's something I've just always lived with and not realized that other people didn't have the same sensations.

When Ingrid Carey says she feels colors, she does not mean she sees red, or feels blue, or is green with envy. She really does feel them.

She can also taste them, and hear them, and smell them.

The 20-year-old junior at the University of Maine has synesthesia, a rare neurological condition in which two or more of the senses entwine.

For me, notes on the musical scale are intertwined with certain colors and smells. For example, the note B-natural is icy blue and smells like ozonated air (post-thunderstorm). It also feels cold. That's how I generally know what a note is when I hear it, or can tell what key a song is being played in by how it makes me feel. I don't always get it right, though; when my nose is stopped up, I can't smell, and I also have trouble hearing as well. This affects my ability to sense musical keys and colors. Likewise if I'm having a headache.

I'm glad they're doing some research on this subject. It seems like it would give some interesting insight into the way the human brain categorizes (or fails to categorize) things.