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Imagine coming home from work and getting ready to make dinner, only to begin smelling a rotten scent that seems to be coming from somewhere near you. Several minutes go by as the scent gets stronger. You take out the trash and search your refrigerator to no avail – the smell is still there. Suddenly, the smell begins to subside as you begin experiencing a throbbing migraine episode. You have just been the victim of migraine related olfactory hallucination, or phantosmia.
Synesthesia is a seemingly harmless condition that is described as the unusual mixing or blending of the senses. Or in other words, the stimulation to one sensory that causes an involuntary response or hallucination from a different sensory. Very little is known about its association with migraines, but some individuals have reported synesthesia replacing symptoms that normally occur during the aura phase of a migraine episode.
