时差N小时 你听到过颜色吗?(上)

Have you ever heard the color blue? Or tasted the musical note F-sharp? For most people, in both cases the answer is no.

你听过蓝色吗？或者尝过音符F调吗？对于大多数人来说，答案是否定的。

But for some people blue has a particular sound or shape, and F sharp has a slightly sour taste.

但是，对于某些特定人群来说，蓝色的确有一种特定的声音或形状，而F调也有一种酸酸的味道。

This unusual blending of the senses is called synesthesia, a rare neurological phenomenon occurring in roughly in 100,000 people.

这种不寻常的感官混淆被称为“共感”，是一种罕见的神经学现象，十万人中会有一人出现这种症状。

People with this condition do not merely associate sound with color or taste with sound, or imagine hearing a sound when they see a certain color.

这类人群不但能将声音与颜色、味觉与声音联系起来，还可能在看到某一特定颜色时想象听到了某种声音。

Rather, when a person with synesthesia encounters a particular sensory¹ stimulus², say seeing the color red, she will hear a sound even when there is no outside source producing the sound.

确切地说，一个有“共感”的人如果受到特殊的感官刺激比如看到红色，就算外界并没有声音，她依然会听到某种声音。

In a similar manner, a particular sound may cause someone with synesthesia to see certain shapes or certain colors, even when there is no object in that person’s line of sight.

同理，拥有“共感”的人也会在听到特定声音后看到某种形状或特定颜色，就算他的视野内并未出现这样的物体。

The same goes for taste and smell.

对于味觉和嗅觉，这种情况也同样存在。

1 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

2 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。