A stroke patient says that when he hears the James Bond theme music, he reaches a state of ecstasy and sees peripheral light flashes.
James Bond is undoubtedly one of the world's most famous movie characters.
A stroke patient says that when he hears the James Bond theme music, he reaches a state of ecstasy and sees peripheral light flashes.
He’s also reported that the sight of blue shades repulses him. He doesn’t care much for yellow, either. He doesn’t care much for yellow, either.
Technically, what he’s experiencing is called synesthesia, a rare condition that causes the brain’s sensory wires to become jumbled. People who are affected by it report experiential anomalies like seeing sound and tasting color.
As far as succumbing to a state of ecstasy upon hearing the James Bond theme music, doctors say what he’s actually reacting to are the high-pitched horns.
In brain scans, the music was shown to light up the thalamus - which is the switchboard, the hippocampus – the part that serves as the memory bank and spatial navigator, and the auditory cortex.
In short, a whole bunch of places that shouldn’t have reacted like they did.
The stroke victim is the second person on record to have acquired synesthesia as a result of brain damage.
