Some people can "hear" colors or "taste" words, the rare phenomenon of synesthesia.

2026-04-20 15:55:00, Kuriozitete CNA

Some people can "hear" colors or "taste" words, the rare

Have you ever experienced a song appearing to have color, or a word having flavor? For a small percentage of people, this is not imagination, but a neurological reality known as synesthesia.

According to researchers, about 1% to 4% of the population experiences this phenomenon, where activating one sense – such as hearing – triggers a second sensory experience, such as sight or taste. This means that some people can see colors when listening to music, or associate letters and numbers with specific colors.

There are different forms of synesthesia. One of the most common is auditory-visual synesthesia, where sounds are associated with colors. Another is grapheme-color synesthesia, where letters and numbers are perceived as specific colors. There are also rarer cases, such as “mirror touch” synesthesia, where a person physically feels what they see in others.

Scientists emphasize that synesthesia is not a disease and does not pose a health risk. For most people who have it, it is simply a natural way of perceiving the world. Many of them do not even realize that their experience is unusual.

As for the causes, researchers still don't have a clear answer, but there are two main theories. The first suggests that people with synesthesia have more neural connections in their brains, causing different areas to communicate more directly. The second theory says that their brains function similarly to others, but some neural pathways are more active than usual.

Interestingly, synesthesia seems to be more prevalent among creative people. Studies show that a significant percentage of synesthetes work in fields such as art, music, and design. This may be related to their ability to make unusual connections between ideas and sensations.

However, experts emphasize that this does not necessarily mean that synesthesia makes someone more creative, but it can affect the way information is experienced and processed.

Ultimately, synesthesia remains a fascinating window into how the human brain works. It shows that the perception of reality is not the same for everyone, but a complex and variable process that can take much richer forms than is commonly thought./ CNA