Specific audio tones or pitches trigger distinct taste sensations.
Inducer
tone
Concurrent
taste
Category
Auditory Gustatory
Tone-taste synesthesia involves specific audio tones or pitches triggering distinct taste sensations. A high C might taste sweet while a low A tastes bitter. Research by Beeli et al. found that musical intervals can produce specific taste qualities, with higher pitches often mapping to sweeter tastes — a pattern that mirrors non-synesthetic cross-modal correspondences but is experienced as a vivid, real taste sensation.
Beeli, G. et al. (2005). Synaesthesia: When coloured sounds taste sweet. Nature, 434.
View publication →Cytowic, R.E. & Eagleman, D.M. (2009). Wednesday Is Indigo Blue. MIT Press.