Yesterday I wrote about the tip of the tongue phenomenon. The name stems from the common saying with the similar form "it's just on the tip of my tongue". This is obvious reference to the tongues role in producing the sounds needed for the word. But there are people who can relate to the other function of the tongue at these situations as well. They can actually taste the word.
Synaesthesia is a condition where a person has a cross-wiring between senses in their brain. One of the common examples is when somebody can visualise numbers as different colours.
Lexical-gustatory is a form of synaesthesia where a person can sense a taste associated with different words. So when they encounter a TOT situation, they might not remember the word, but they can taste it on the tip of their tongue.
The fact that there are such people is astonishing. But it has also been beneficial in studying the TOT phenomenon. Like those blocking related memories, maybe the taste can also be one of such factor. It's a proof, that there is a lot happening in our brain whenever we need to tap into it's vast amount of memories.
Now I just wonder what would all these words taste like.