seeing a picture of pie in my mind?" The answer is, very different! When you experience a smell and then see a picture, you are using your memory to access a pre-formed picture of a pie. However, this picture may not be the same every time you smell a pie, nor will the picture of the pie appear every time you pick up the smell. On the other hand, a synesthete who had visualization-smell synesthesia would have the same experience every time. Their mental picture, though, would not be of a pie or anything so complex, but of unrelated textures and colors. If you smelled something new, such as a food you'd never encountered before, you would not have a picture to go along with it. A synesthete, though, would automatically have a new set of textures and colors assigned to this new experience. Also, the synesthete would have the experience regardless of whether he or she were paying attention to the smell, whereas someone without synesthesia does not usually have memory percepts or experiences associated with unattended stimuli. Back to top of FAQ