Kathryn Jackson, a 22 year-old woman, can taste or smell something just by hearing a word or seeing a word spelled out. The rare condition that she has is called lexical-gustatory synaesthesia and that’s what makes her taste and/or smell certain things when she hears certain words. The reason why she tastes or smells a certain food is because that specific word that she hears is associated with the food item she tastes. The condition she has is really rare and barely any people have it.
Some examples of words that make her taste things are the name Rory, when she hears the name Rory she begins to taste carrots. Kathryn said,” My friend Rory’s name makes me taste carrots, because it sounds like ‘raw’ which makes me think of carrots.” Another thing Kathryn tastes when she hears the word Lola is a lolly-pop, she also tastes jelly beans when she hears the word Ella, Kathryn also said,” The name Ella makes me taste jelly beans because ‘Ella’ and ‘jella’ rhyme. ” She can also taste stuffing when someone says impossible. So whenever Kathryn is having a conversation and she hears one of those words it automatically triggers her to taste and/or smell the food item that it is associated with, sometimes she can also feel the texture of the food item.
Her condition comes from Synaesthesia, which is more common and when you have that condition instead of tasting words you connect certain colors with certain numbers.
