Some people report perceiving smells or tastes when they see certain images (photographs, videos, etc.). In some cases this may be synesthesia. However, it would not be considered synesthesia in the following cases:
- if it only happens very occasionally (just a few times in one’s lifetime)
- if the olfactory or gustatory concurrents are varied in response to the same image
- if the smell or taste evoked by the image is the one it would have in real life (a photograph of someone smoking smells like tobacco smoke, for example) (see the description of olfactory or gustatory imagination/hyperphantasia below)
- if the smell is not produced on looking at a certain image but is perceived suddenly with no apparent relation to anything in particular: there is no possible source of a real smell and no concept, image, sound, thought, etc. that could be related to it as a synesthetic inducer. These “ghost smells” could be result of a condition called phantosmia, which consists of olfactory hallucinations, uncommon but normally benign, in which various smells such as burning rubber, cigarette smoke, chemicals, rotten food or sometimes more pleasant aromas are suddenly perceived “out of the blue” for a certain period of time. More information on phantosmia here.
Olfactory or gustatory imagination (hyperphantasia), and not synesthesia, might be the reason
Some people - synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike - have an exceptional olfactory or gustatory memory and/or a great ability to recreate smells or flavours in their mind just by thinking about them. In fact, some can even physically smell or taste them when they do this. If a person with this ability looks at a picture that strongly suggests a smell or taste to them, they can get the feeling of being able to smell or taste it, or even actually physically smell or taste it as if it was there in front of them. This mental recreation of smells and tastes can be quite automatic and unconscious and it can even be consistent when the same images are viewed, but it isn't considered synesthesia. Some terms that can be used to describe it are "olfactory imagination", "olfactorization" and "olfactory hyperphantasia" for smells, and "gustatory imagination" and "gustatory hyperphantasia" for tastes. With this phenomenon the perceived sensation corresponds to the real smell or the real taste (or in any case one that would be possible or similar): a photograph of oranges would smell of oranges, for example.
So when could smelling or tasting images be synesthesia?
The possibility exists of this being an uncommon type of synesthesia, which in the case of smells could be called “concept-smell” or “conceptual-olfactory” synesthesia and in the case of tastes “concept-taste” or “conceptual-gustatory” synesthesia, if the smells/tastes evoked by the images are consistent (same image = same smell or taste every time) and occur reasonably frequently and not just very occasionally.
The smell or taste perceived would not be an exact match to the concept depicted in the image, as olfactory/gustatory concurrents are idiosyncratic (different for each synesthete), as tends to be the case for synesthetic concurrents in general.
As the smell or taste in question is triggered by a concept, it might also sometimes be produced on hearing words referring to that specific concept, reading about it, or even just by thinking about it.
Go to the page on concept-smell and concept-taste synesthesia
An example of such a concept could be personality, perceived by looking at a picture of a person’s face. Personality-smell and personality-taste synesthesia exist, but usually occur with people the synesthete sees in real life. Hypothetically they could occur either with people seen in real life, in both real life and images, or only on seeing images.
Go to the page on personality-smell and personality-taste synesthesia
If what triggers the olfactory/gustatory concurrent is the colour of the image being observed, it could be a case of colour-to-smell or colour-to-taste synesthesia, which are also uncommon types and normally only occur in people who have many different types of synesthesia, strongly expressed.
Go to the page on colour-to-smell synesthesia
Go to the page on colour-to-taste synesthesia
Some people
have emotion-smell or emotion-taste synesthesia, and if the image observed causes them to feel a certain
very specific emotion it can give rise to their olfactory or gustatory concurrent for that
particular emotion. The aroma or flavour could even be caused by perceiving an emotion in another person, by
looking at their face in either a picture or in real life, if the observer
has perceived emotion-to-smell synesthesia, a type that is evoked on
intuitively perceiving the emotions of other people.
Go to the page on emotion-smell synesthesia
Go to the page on emotion-taste synesthesia
Go to the page on perceived emotion-to-colour and other concurrents including smell and taste
All of the
types of synesthesia mentioned here are uncommon. However, it has been observed that people with other types of synesthesia can have occasional experiences of this kind.
Here are
some descriptions written by people who smell or taste images and could be considered to
have a type of related synesthesia:
1. This would be considered synesthesia because the smells are perceived often, they are consistent and they are "random" rather than directly resembling those of what is being seen (people's faces, in this case). The concept of different people (perceived personality) is a known inducer of synesthesia.
"Whenever I look at a face in a picture or in real life, I get a smell that feels like it was created just in my nose and throat. Sometimes I don’t notice it and it’s very hard to tell it’s there, but sometimes it’s so intense that it’s borderline taste and it can feel like my nose is burning. (...) The smells are generally very random. Every person’s face has a different smell, and sometimes the scent changes when I look at them from a different angle or something."
(Source: This post on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2020.)
2. This account also describes image-smell pairings that seem to be of a random nature but are very consistent over time, which are two characteristics that would suggest this is synesthesia and not olfactorization:
"I can smell pictures. (...) Like pictures of living things not drawings. I see a picture of a dog and I smell grass and ammonia. I see a picture of a person and I smell the same things each and every time, and it’s normally based on the first picture I see of them. For example, Meg Ryan, I smell cheese. Harrison Ford, I smell boot leather."
(Source: This post on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2020.)
3. A colour can be the trigger for the smell perceived sometimes, rather than a picture of the actual thing that would produce such a smell or taste (toast in this case).
"Personally the images that I enjoy the most are the ones that smell like buttered toast, which usually have lots of yellow and blue in them. There is this one youtuber that plays saxophone, and looking at her makes me smell this really delicious raspberry/strawberry yogurt."
(Source:
This comment on Reddit/Synesthesia. 2020.)
These are some pages in the Tree about related types of synesthesia that you might be interested in reading:
Concept-smell and concept-taste synesthesia
Personality-smell and personality-taste synesthesia
More cases / readers' comments: read all the comments on
this article here
(See the comments received in 2026 below, or follow the above link for access to all the reader comments describing their own experiences.)
This page last updated: 6 May 2026
If I see a picture of roses or a match striking on tv, I smell them.
ReplyDeleteBack in my early twenties I did a lot of traveling and I visited many places in the world. Now 20+ years later, when I see an image of an area that looks similar to one I have visited back then, not only do I remember what it looked like, but I get the smells of the landscape too. Even without looking at an image, I can bring up memories that aren't only very clear images in my head (eyes open or closed) but the smells can be quite overwhelming depending on the memory. When I was a student my room mates threw me a surprise party and led me (blindfolded) around the block, taking several false turns and when we crossed the threshold I knew exactly where I was from how it smelled, I can remember this smell now too while I write this - so this remembering and picturing smells isn't new. It doesn't tick any of the boxes that I can find?
ReplyDelete