The Man Who Tasted Words by Guy Leschziner

It is a profound, entertaining and quite exceptional book.”- Dr. Leschziner takes us through an exploration of our senses, making us question the nature of our reality and how we interpret the world around us. 'Vibrant with personality and full of wonder.

These are beautifully and engagingly written stories of how our senses tell us about the reality of the world-or, sometimes, don’t.'- Gavin Esler, author of How Britain Ends 'A truly astonishing book-from the story of the man who tasted words to that of Paul who could pull out his own teeth and break his legs yet feel no pain. What a terrific melding of brain science with thoughtful ideas on our window to the outside world.'- Allan Ropper, M.D., author of Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole and H ow the Brain Lost Its Mind 'In vivid stories of patient maladies that affect our very human sensations of sight, sound, smell, touch and pain, Leschziner has deeply explored the sensory experiences that bombard every moment of our lives but of which we are barely aware. Reviews BookĮxcerpts About the Author Reviews Praise for The Man Who Tasted Words The cases Leschziner shares in The Man Who Tasted Words are extreme, but they are also human, and teach us how our lives and what we perceive as reality are both ultimately defined by the complexities of our nervous systems. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have played havoc, not only with their view of the world, but with their relationships as well. In The Man Who Tasted Words, neurologist Guy Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning-the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance-is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves and, in most cases, completely out of our control.

But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. Our senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Media Issues, Communication & Journalism.

Computer Science & Information Technology.

The Man Who Tasted Words by Guy Leschziner