Lexical-gustatory Synesthesia

Lexical-gustatory synesthesia is one of the rarer forms of synesthesia, in which spoken or written words evoke vivid sensations of taste, sometimes including temperature and texture (e.g., for lexical-gustatory synesthete JIW, 'jail' tastes of cold, hard bacon). This form of synesthesia was first documented in 1907 in both Italy and the United States (Ferrari 1907; Pierce 1907), but has only recently become the topic of scientific investigation.