He talks about synesthesia (simplest definition: mixing of the senses) in infants, how their world is a jumble of intermingling senses for the first few months. Shapes become colors (a triangle may be experienced as red, for example). Some sounds may inspire a reaction from an infant's taste buds or her auditory or visual cortex. For an infant, the world must be a strangely, enriching place.
And then most of us lose this ability. We stop hearing words as tastes, stop seeing shapes as distinct colors. Some of us don't, though. People with synesthesia may see the letter A as orange or hear a person's name as a unique taste, like orange.
I've tried to inspire synesthesia in myself. But I have failed. My brain does not want to work that way. :)
This is a randomly selected book from the New book section at the library. I'm trying to stimulate my brain by reading stuff I normally wouldn't, like stuff about babies, of whom I have very little interest. So far, this is an easy brain stimulant. :)
