#35 What People Who Taste Triangles Reveal About Consciousness! Dr Anina Rich

Dr. Anina Rich is a cognitive neuroscientist and one of the world’s foremost experts on synesthesia — the rare phenomenon where senses merge, allowing people to see music, taste shapes, or feel touch by sight alone.But synesthesia isn’t a neurological glitch — it’s a window into how all of our brains construct reality.

In this conversation, we explore how synesthesia reveals the brain’s hidden architecture: how we fuse the senses, how attention shapes perception, and why reality itself might just be a controlled hallucination.

Expect to learn what it’s like to taste triangles, why some people feel physical pain when watching someone else get hurt, whether psychedelics can trigger temporary synesthesia, the strange science of sound-color associations, how the brain decides what to notice (and what to ignore), what synesthesia tells us about consciousness, why your brain doesn’t just perceive the world but predicts it, and how understanding this might make us more compassionate, focused, and self-aware.This is one of the most mind-bending explorations of perception and consciousness ever recorded.

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

01:56 Exploring Reality and Perception

03:57 Understanding Synesthesia

12:54 The Subjectivity of Experience

14:44 The Complexity of Conscious Experience

18:00 Developmental Theories of Synesthesia

22:17 Personal Experiences and Synesthetic Associations 30:30 Common Patterns in Synesthetic Experiences

30:36 Exploring Synesthesia and Its Mechanisms

31:56 Brain Connectivity and Synesthetic Experiences

33:44 Innovative Research Methods in Synesthesia

38:58 Understanding Perception Through Synesthesia

42:56 Implications of Synesthesia on Consciousness

47:42 Attention and Its Role in Perception

52:53 Synesthesia and Psychedelics

56:00 Creativity and Synesthesia

57:52 The Subjectivity of Conscious Experience

01:00:05 Future Directions in Synesthesia Research

...

_Follow My Neuroscience Podcast - The Giants Shoulder_

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m3Gta5MtIYdk59pb2GJ7M?si=b33232eae67b4126

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/brief-enquiry-to-the-brain/id1752486249

_Neuroscience Products I Swear By (Supports the Channel)_

Manta Sleep Mask: Get the Comfiest Sleep Mask on the Planet (Use Code GIANTSMANTA10 https://bit.ly/4ilzfBL )Brain.FM: Music Entrainment for Focused Deep Work (30 Day Free Trial: https://www.brain.fm/giantsshoulder)Consensus.AI: AI Powered Research (Use Code THEGIANTSSHOULDER for 1 Year Free Premium Sub)