Constantina Makridakis, a 28-year-old Greek jewelry designer, says that since childhood she always thought everyone could taste people's names and voices. Her father, Nicholas, tastes like caramel-wrapped chocolate, while her mother, Maria, resembles pasta with shrimp.
As a teenager, Makridakis happened to watch a documentary about synaesthesia—a phenomenon where one sense triggers experiences in another—and realized she belonged to this special group. It is estimated that about 2 to 4% of the world's population experiences something similar, according to research published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Among celebrities, singer Billie Eilish perceives the days of the week as colors, numbers, and shapes. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt is said to have seen musical notes as colors—in 1842, he once told the Weimar orchestra to “play a bit bluer,” baffling the musicians.
Janina Neufeld, a researcher at the Karolinska Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND) in Sweden, explains that the phenomenon is not yet fully understood. A leading hypothesis suggests that people with synaesthesia undergo less "synaptic pruning" during childhood, allowing cross-connections between senses to persist longer. Research also shows that brain regions processing sensory information are more active in synaesthetes, and interactions between brain areas are enhanced.
Neufeld herself experiences a form of spatial-sequence synaesthesia—she describes a year as a roller-coaster track in mental space, counterclockwise, with some months longer than others.
Makridakis admits the experience can sometimes be distracting—for instance, while watching a film, an actor's voice tasting like orange juice can throw her off. She also craves Coca-Cola when hearing an American accent, because to her that accent tastes like the soft drink. U.S. President Donald Trump's voice, for her, resembles melted cheddar cheese; actor Daniel Radcliffe tastes like chocolate milk; rapper Eminem is like cheese snacks.
Still, Makridakis considers it a fun part of who she is. She believes that if studied further, synaesthesia could help people understand the mind better. "We all think differently about the same thing," she says. "We might call the same color red, but actually each person sees it differently." Neufeld agrees: "Synaesthesia is a perfect demonstration that the world each of us perceives is truly unique."
