Synesthesia and James Wannerton

I’m watching more and more Science channel all the time these days.  In the past week or so I’ve seen two shows on Synesthesia. Here’s the definition of Synesthesia from Wikipedia:”Synesthesia is a neurologically-based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway”

So for example, when James Wannerton hear’s sounds, he tastes foods.  So like if you say wipe, he tastes marmite.  Here’s a quote from James describing his condition  “Whenever I hear, read, or articulate (inner speech) words or word sounds, I experience an immediate and involuntary taste sensation on my tongue. These very specific taste associations never change and have remained the same for as long as I can remember.”

Does that mean that James can have someone slowly say the words for his favorite drink and favorite foods and really be able to enjoy that?  Or does it work differently, and that would not be a pleasant situation for him? Could he make up words that combine other words and combine tastes in his mouth?  Or does one come distinctly before and after the next?One of the shows had a clip of him riding on the bus and being out in public. 

There is an awful lot of random chatter out there in the real world.  It seems like the constant bombardment of random tastes would drive him crazy.  Wouldn’t he be better off with headphones of some sort?  Or with some way to minimize the auditory input from others around him?

Wild stuff, I’m going to learn more and I’ll post what I find.

UPDATE:  I sent an email which eventually was forwarded to James Wannerton, and I was given his email address which I chose not to use since he did not give it to me himself.  I sent him many questions that I had so I hope one day he has some time and will email me back.