READING:
THE MAN WHO TASTED SHAPES
RICHARD CYTOWIC
1993. Bradford books. ISBN 0-87477-738-0
Richard Cytowic's dinner host apologized, "There aren't enough points
on the chicken!" He felt flavor also as a physical shape in his hands,
and the chicken had come out "too round." This offbeat comment in
1980 launched Cytowic's exploration into the oddity called synesthesia. He
is one of the few world authorities on the subject.
Sharing a root with anesthesia ("no sensation"), synesthesia means
"joined sensation," whereby a voice, for example, is not only heard
but also seen, felt, or tasted. The trait is involuntary, hereditary, and
fairly common. It stayed a scientific mystery for two centuries until Cytowic's
original experiments led to a neurological explanation--and to a new concept
of brain organization that accentuates emotion over reason.
That chicken dinner two decades ago led Cytowic to explore a deeper reality
that exists in everyone, he argues, but often just below the surface of awareness,
which is why finding meaning in our lives can be elusive. --a view that turns
upside down conventional ideas about reason, emotional knowledge, and self-understanding.
The 2003 edition features a new afterword.
Richard E. Cytowic, M.D., is the founder of Capitol Neurology, a private clinic
in Washington, D.C.
(Description from: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?
ttype=2&tid=10003)