Synesthesia

An accessible, concise primer on the neurological trait of synesthesia--vividly felt sensory couplings--by a founder of the field.One in twenty-three people carry the genes for the synesthesia. A synesthete might hear a voice and at the same time see it as a color or shape, taste its distinctive flavor, or feel it as a physical touch. Not a disorder but a neurological trait--like perfect pitch--synesthesia creates vividly felt cross-sensory couplings.

In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Richard Cytowic, the expert who returned synesthesia to mainstream science after decades of oblivion, offers a concise, accessible primer on this fascinating human experience.Cytowic explains that synesthesia's most frequent manifestation is seeing days of the week as colored, followed by sensing letters, numerals, and punctuation marks in different hues even when