Words that taste like orange candy.

Music that projects brilliant, shimmering colors.

Numbers that come with personalities and full life stories.

These are all forms of synesthesia, a neurological condition in which senses such as taste, touch, smell, and vision, link or merge.

Historical accounts of people with synesthesia date back hundreds of years,

but it's only in recent decades that scientists have been able to use brain imaging

and other modern research methods to gain a better understanding of how synesthesia works

and why it might occur.

So what does it like to have synesthesia?

What might cause it and how do the brains of people with synesthesia differ from those

of people without it?

What can we learn about the human mind more generally from studying synesthesia and other

sensory differences?

Welcome to Speaking of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological

Association that examines the links between psychological science and everyday life.

Our guest today is Dr. Jules Simner, a professor of neuropsychology at the University of Sussex

in the United Kingdom, who specializes

in multisensory research. She has studied synesthesia in adults and children for nearly two decades.

She also researches other sensory differences, including misophonia, an extreme aversion to certain sounds,

and Afentasia, the inability to see pictures in your mind's eye.

We'll discuss these today too and talk about what links these threads of research together.

Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Simner.

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