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Once established in childhood, pairings remain fixed for life.
一旦在兒時建立了聯系，關聯感覺間的聯系就會伴隨終身。
Synesthetes inherit a biological propensity for hyperconnecting brain neurons, but then must be exposed to cultural artifacts, such as calendars, food names, and alphabets.
聯覺者遺傳了在大腦神經元之間建立超鏈接的生物傾向，但之后必須接觸文化產品，例如日歷、食物的名字，還有字母表。
The amazing thing is that a single nucleotide change in the sequence of one's DNA alters perception.
令人驚奇的是，在DNA序列中一個核苷酸的變化就可以改變一個人認知世界的方式。
In this way, synesthesia provides a path to understanding subjective differences, how two people can see the same thing differently.
通過這種方式，聯覺提供了一種途徑來研究主觀認知的區別，以及兩個人如何對同樣的事物產生不同的認知。
Take Sean, who prefers blue tasting food, such as milk, oranges, and spinach.
拿肖恩來說，他喜歡藍色味道的食物，像牛奶、橙子，還有菠菜。
The gene heightens normally occurring connections between the taste area in his frontal lobe and the color area further back.
基因會增強額葉中味覺區和較靠后的色覺區之間的正常連接。
But suppose in someone else that the gene acted in non-sensory areas.
但假如另外一個人的基因在非感覺區作用。
You would then have the ability to link seemingly unrelated things, which is the definition of metaphor, seeing the similar in the dissimilar.
他就會擁有連接看似無關事物的能力，這就是象征的定義，從不相似中發現相似。
Not surprisingly, synesthesia is more common in artists who excel at making metaphors, like novelist Vladimir Nabokov, painter David Hockney, and composers Billy Joel and Lady Gaga.
自然地，聯覺更頻繁地出現在善于運用比擬的藝術家中，像小說家弗拉基米爾·納博科夫，畫家大衛·霍克尼，還有作曲家比利·喬爾以及Lady Gaga。
But why do the rest of us non-synesthetes understand metaphors like "sharp cheese" or "sweet person"?
但為何我們這些非聯覺者會明白像“銳利的芝士”，“甜蜜的人”之類的比喻？
It so happens that sight, sound, and movement already map to one another so closely, that even bad ventriloquists convince us that the dummy is talking.
碰巧，視覺、聽覺還有運動已經聯系得十分緊密，即使是拙劣的口技表演者也能讓我們相信人偶真的在說話。
Movies, likewise, can convince us that the sound is coming from the actors' mouths rather than surrounding speakers.
類似地，電影讓我們相信聲音是來自演員的嘴巴，而不是周圍的音響。
So, inwardly, we're all synesthetes, outwardly unaware of the perceptual couplings happening all the time.
所以，在內心深處，我們都是聯覺者，在表面上卻不知曉感覺的聯結每時每刻都在發生。
Cross-talk in the brain is the rule, not the exception.
大腦里信息的互相干擾是常態，而不是例外。
And that sounds like a sweet deal to me!
而在我聽來，這真是一件甜蜜的事！
