Nancy Ann Tappe

Synesthesia is a natural, neurobiological process where two or more senses are cross-wired in the brain, creating an often dizzying array of sensory perceptions. Synsthesia is NOT a brain disorder, nor is it an abnormal disease. It has a tendency to run in families, thus scientists believe it is genetic in origin. Today scientists in 15 countries around the world are in a race to find the gene which causes this unusual condition. While some synesthetes use their perceptions for creativity, most do not utilize them at all, and some synesthetes are not even aware that their sensations differ from everyone else. Experts today believe that one in twenty people have some form of synesthesia.

  Kinds of synesthesia

There are 43 different "crosses" of senses that have been identified and tested for. One of the most common is color-grapheme synesthesia, as evidenced in the colored word above. Synesthetes with that perception see colors around letters, numbers, and other organized systems (days of the weeks, months of the year, etc.) Each letter or number has a different color and differing shades of intensity. No two synesthetes share the exact same perception. Scientists are now beginning to believe that some children in school have difficulty learning to spell because the "colors are wrong" in the way the teacher or textbook presents them vs. the way that child sees them.

For more information about this fascinating process, check out the following links:

• Article in Scientific American
• Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia
• Take a test for synesthesia

What kind does Nancy have?

Nancy sees color and tastes shape. Foods that she eats have both color and a geometrical shape attached to them. Some are extremely pleasurable; others are not. Nancy was born with this process as was her grandmother. As was typical in her time, she was taught not to speak of it to others.

Nancy's synesthesia will be described in detail in her forthcoming book In Living Color: A Synesthete's Perceptions due out this year. In this book Nancy relates her own personal experiences with synesthesia and tells how she organized those perceptions into a system of meaning about the human personality.