biology

The Man Who Tasted Shapes

The Man Who Tasted Shapes is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Man Who Tasted Shapes rather than just read about it. In short: The Man Who Tasted Shapes is a book by neurologist Richard Cytowic about synesthesia. Summary The book is divided into two parts.

Key takeaways

The Man Who Tasted Shapes belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Man Who Tasted Shapes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Man Who Tasted Shapes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Man Who Tasted Shapes is a book by neurologist Richard Cytowic about synesthesia.

Summary The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, Cytowic describes his chance encounter during a dinner party on February 10, 1980 with MW, the "Man Who Tasted Shapes." Cytowic describes how his host reported that "There aren't enough points on the chicken!" and how this chance comment led to Cytowic's investigations of the neurological phenomenon of synesthesia. Early chapters include background information on how the brain is organized, drawn mainly from Paul D. MacLean's Triune Brain theory. Cytowic describes MW's synesthesia, noting the consistency of his reports, that such experiences are "generic" and consistent over time. Chapters dealing with more scientific theories, data and experimentation are alternated with autobiographical and more personal chapters describing the historical details of Cytowic's investigations into synesthesia. In order to explore the biological basis of synesthesia, Cytowic describes experiments in which he tested how MW's synesthesia was reduced by MW's daily routine of stimulants such as nicotine and caffeine and depressants such as alcohol. In more intensive investigations of the effects of different psychoactive substances, Cytowic notes that stimulants, including a dose of amphetamine, decreased the strength of MW's synesthesia, while amyl nitrite increased the strength of MW's synesthesia. For example, MW reports that mint feels like a cool glass column, but that amyl nitrite led him to feel as if he were placing his hand among many glass columns. Cytowic also summarizes work done with functional neuroimaging which showed unusually low cortical activation in MW. Based on these results, Cytowic proposes a theory in which synesthesia is a result of unusual processing in the limbic system and an overall decrease in cortical activation. In later chapters, Cytowic reports on his efforts to make synesthesia more widely known, on the experiences of many other synesthetes who have contacted him, and how synesthesia affects their lives. Cytowic describes how an article about his work on synesthesia in the tabloid The National Enquirer, a publication which is "not known to help one's career", led to his first contacts with synesthetes beyond MW These personal accounts of synesthesia, described here in more autobiographical style, also form the basis of Cytowic's more detailed scientific book, Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses. Additionally, Cytowic discusses the links between synesthesia and memory, as first noted in Alexander Luria's book The Mind of Mnemonist about Solomon Shereshevskii, a Russian mnemonist who also experienced fivefold synesthesia. In the second part of the book, entitled "Essays on the Primacy of Emotion", Cytowic presents a number of his reflections on what the phenomenon of synesthesia means for traditional neuroscientific and neurological practice, how anomalous findings can lead to major scientific discoveries, and the role that emotion plays in our understanding of the world around us.

References

External links THES Review 14 April 1995 Review in Metapsychology online by G.C. Gupta, Ph.D. 2 May 2006.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Man Who Tasted Shapes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Man Who Tasted Shapes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Man Who Tasted Shapes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Man Who Tasted Shapes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Man Who Tasted Shapes

In research: The Man Who Tasted Shapes appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Man Who Tasted Shapes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Man Who Tasted Shapes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2003 non-fiction books, MIT Press books, Neuroscience books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Man Who Tasted Shapes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “The Man Who Tasted Shapes” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study The Man Who Tasted Shapes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Man Who Tasted Shapes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Man Who Tasted Shapes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Man Who Tasted Shapes in simple terms?

The Man Who Tasted Shapes is a book by neurologist Richard Cytowic about synesthesia. Summary The book is divided into two parts.

Why does The Man Who Tasted Shapes matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Man Who Tasted Shapes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Man Who Tasted Shapes.