In Living Color: How Hues Hoodwink Flavor

In 1690, English philosopher and physician John Locke wrote about a blind man who longed to understand hues he’d never seen. One day, the man announced that he recognized the color red, finally. “It’s like the sound of a trumpet!” he proclaimed. Some consider this to be the first recorded account of synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which a person experiences a sense other than the one that’s being stimulated—the piano note E-flat is lavender; circles taste bitter; confusion is orange.