it's a complicated world :p if you don't have something it's hard to believe how others have it. Just like blind people must imagine how others can see or hearing for deaf people etc. For me it's difficult to believe people can't see things in their minds ^^.
My whole life since childhood everyone told me how rich imagination I have, but today realising that I've actually never SAW the things I was fantasising about is shocking. Even when reading a book and trying to see the room, the colors or characters is really tough for me, I can't hold the picture in my mind, it's so abstract and it always changes like a psychedelic trip.
But slight difference. I can generate dancing silver marionettes. Which is just mentally embossing or topography variation I guess. That darkness we have. Is powerful. We don't have any image flood. We can work with form patiently there.
This fr!! especially with characters in a book..no matter what book the mmc & fmc always are the generally the same in my mind despite how they are depicted..if I try to put the description given its like the characters keep changing around in my mind like it won't stay 🙃😂
I remember in kindergarten we were playing a game where u win a prize. They told us to close our eyes and tell what colors we see. Everyone said smth like yellow, blue, etc. And as I child I was surprised because I saw only black, lol. I thought everyone was lying to get the prize.
@@Eyan- Nope. Most people can imagine colors on our minds. Just like we can recall things we have seen before and that's including colors. For example, surely it's not hard to imagine a rose in red. 🌹 But i do know it is hard for Aphantasics to do that on their mind, because they keep looking af the 'black' darkness at the back of their eyelids when closing eyes, instead of letting the eyes go to rest and letting the mind go into work for visualizing.
This explains so much! Meditation was always so hard for me - particularly when you’re told to imagine yourself engulfed in white light. It’s literally impossible for me
Yes, many people who identify with aphantasia find expressions like "imagine yourself engulfed in white light" or "imagine where you'll be in five years" to be metaphorical until they discover aphantasia -- and that others take those expressions more literally!
Exactly! First realized something was different when I tried to meditate. Couldn't see a thing, asked my kids if they could see, for example, a red rose. No problem for them.
@@helendycha2790 I never knew other people had these issues until seeing this video. Now when u said u asked your kids if they could picture a red rose I tried to do it myself. For a fleeting moment I can picture a rose but I can’t hold it in my mind and it’s at a distance - if that makes sense…? It doesn’t have any detail.
Mine is congenital and I had no idea people could literally see things in their heads until I was an adult. I’ve always struggled creatively because I have the intense need to create but literally cannot image what I’m trying to make whether it be music, art, or writing. I don’t mind so much though because I never get images stuck in my head that I can’t get rid of.
I know exactly what you mean about that struggle. I also have a great need to create (music and art) and, like you, am frustrated by my inability to imagine what something will sound or look like until I create it.
Yes I have terrible to zero visualisation but my biggest skill is creativity. I do sketch with a lot of erratic lines and find my way of image making through actually making the marks on paper because I cannot do that in my head. I have to source things to copy. It's a different way of working. But can have upsides also.
It’s really weird for me, since I can see images in dreams and sometimes involuntarily, but if I try to visualize it then It’s really hard, I can only describe it based on memories, but not actually visualize it, it’s really weird
Yes, how you 'see' things in dreams is exactly how we visualize things while awake. It is like recalling memories. Since u can see images in dreams, I suggest you try to recall your dreams immediately the next time you just wake up. And see if your mind can recall some visual details. Hope it helps. 😉
Unfortunately I have Aquired Aphantasia and it's actually caused me considerable difficulty in adjusting to my new reality. Until 20 years ago, I was lucky enough to be exceptionally gifted with mental imagery. I could literally imagine anything I wanted with massive clarity, but not just still images. I could play back entire scenes in my head, including sights, sounds and smells. My dreams were so real, it would often take me some time after waking, to work out what was real and what was part of the dream. That part was a little unsettling sometimes, but not a big problem. For me, it was a very big part of how I remembered things. If I wanted to remember pretty much anything, I'd imagine it in my mind and could explore the details as though I were looking right at it. I've also always been a highly creative person, in many different ways and if I wanted to make something for example, I would imagine what I wanted to create and then could make it from that created memory. That all changed 20 years ago though. I had a head on collision, because I made a stupid mistake and although luckily no one was seriously hurt, my partner at the time was pregnant with our first child and for a few hours, well, let's just say I thought my mistake had brought that to a horrible end. Even though it turned out that our Son was thankfully unharmed, I most definitely wasn't. For the next couple of years, whether awake or asleep, my brain kept torturing me with the most horrific and vivid images and entire scenes. Things that no parent should ever see and not just of the crash and my feared outcome. I slipped deeper and deeper into depression and symptoms of ptsd and then eventually, I just stopped seeing anything in my mind at all. IN many ways, at the time, that was a great relief, due to what I'd been seeing, but with it came huge memory problems. I've struggled to properly remember things accurately ever since that ability to recall vivd images shut off. Now 20 years later, there has been minor improvement. I've started occasionally seeing detailed images in dreams, although nowhere near as vivid as they used to be, but good enough. I also now occasionally see brief flashes of reasonably detailed images unintentionally, but if I try to concentrate on those images, they disappear entirely. As for seeing images intentionally, forget it. If I'm really relaxed and there are no distractions, I can sometimes bring up the briefest of darkened, fuzzy images, but nothing more and they lack all of the additional details that they used to have. No sounds, no smells and I can make them move, so no scene replay at all. As with involuntary images, if I try to concentrate on them, they vanish instantly. So in my case, it doesn't appear to be physical brain damage that's caused my Aphantasia, although I did possibly suffer very minor, (undiagnosed) brain damage from whiplash, which caused a loss of muscle memory, (I had to retrain my hands to do things like how to tie my shoes and use a knife and fork for example), but it seems mine was caused by trauma. I've struggled with it a lot over the years, but until recently, I didn't know what it was called or that other people had it too. I thought it was just me and in some ways, it's a relief to know that it isn't and possibly even gives me hope that if mine is trauma triggered as I suspect, then maybe there's a way to get it back. Apologies this is such a long post by the way. I didn't start out intending it to be that way, lol.
Holy shit! I don't feel alone right now. This is me! This is me right now. I'm so scared and terrified. This just happened to me a few days ago... I'm so scared. I just woke up and my brain... my mind... myself feels broken. You literally described everything that I'm going through. I wish I could connect and talk things through with you because I feel like I'm going insane.
Thanks for sharing. Atleast you can still sleep after your traumatic incident. There's a man in Vietnam who cannot sleep forever after sustaining trauma during a war. It's on UA-cam. Anyway, I believe it could be mostly psychological injury to the mind and minimally physical. And with proper mental exercise, your condition might improve further. I would suggest doing relaxing meditation, where you place yourself at the most comfortable settings, put your mind at ease and let go of any anxiety, and just dwell on happy thoughts, and try recalling happy things, happy moments. I hope gradually, this would help you visualize things again. 😉
I just recently discovered aphantasia, but I have known for years that my mental imagery was not like others. I always tell people that I can feel the image rather than see the image. It's an outline, and it only stays as I am consciously thinking of it.
I found out I had aphantasia several years ago and the concept of people actually being able to SEE things in their head blew my mind; like you, I always thought phrases like “picture this” were metaphorical I tend to have extremely vivid dreams and have a “vivid” imagination but I was in probably my mid twenties when I found out most people can voluntarily create mental imagery and it made me feel like I was playing life on hard mode 😆
Im a digital illustrator and people are always confused because instead of turning characters in my head, I will draw and redraw them into position on the canvas. I never knew why until realizing that everyone else just does it mentally
Lots of people don't learn that the way that they imagine or do things like turn thoughts into drawings are different until they are already adults. According to survey research into aphantasia, your experience sounds similar to lots of other people with aphantasia.
Yeah it really hurt my learning progress because when I was younger I was taught that using references is really bad. So it wasn't until this year that I realized that I should probably use them since I figured out that I had this disorder as well. I'm always so confused how people can just think of things and draw it, I can know things and draw it. It's like my art is based on math sort of, with proportions of people it's obvious that you can break down symmetry within every part and use that on the same radius to help with movement structures. I think that this would be much better explained if I could visually show someone because I can't really explain it that well.
i'm a graphic designer and have it. my husband does NOT understand but then has seen me get lost in the attic since i cant picture the layout of the house lol
the hardest for me is to picture faces. I mean, I spend so much time with those people and know exactly what they look like and can describe them but i‘m not able to picture them in my mind. weird.
sometimes i get really sad when i have this :( because like you said, you spend so many times with eachother and then i forget how they look. it makes me really sad
Same. Can’t see faces in my mind 99.9% of the time. Sometimes though, if I imagine a person saying something or moving in a particular way, I can sort of picture them - by they have to be someone I have seen for years and years.
@tinylilmatt yes, if I told my mum to visualise a pouring a coffee, hearing how it sounds, smelling it, touching the mug to pick it up and then tasting it, she could do all those things without there being any coffee. People with Aphantasia often find it affects all or some of their minds senses and therefore, cannot do some or all of those things.
@@jewelsp.2326 This is me! The only thing I hear in my head is a faint version of my voice. No visuals, smells, tastes, touch or hearing others voices.
@@jewelsp.2326 I can't do any of those things... no pictures, smells, sounds, taste or touch sensations. Knew I wasn't good at visualizing, but have only found out this week that others have all of these abilities in their minds eye. I'm hearing there are some advantages to having aphantasia but feel like I'm missing out tbh lol
As someone with hyperphantasia I always assumed everyone had the same level of visualization, I would often say things like "Just visualize this and you will understand what Im talking about".... Was an eye opener learning about the various levels on the spectrum and how people learn to adapt by growing different skillsets and methodologies to achieve the same goal.
@@ARTexplains my mom and i have this and we dream vividly. We had a conversation today about it. Analogy and description like a story is how we imagine things or visualize. It's like just knowing. it's hard to explain. Dreaming is the only time i see stuff and why i like sleeping so much.
I have this (the congenital kind), and people are always veeeery confused. Also I have an absolutely crap sense of direction because I can't form a proper mental map
@@Toyro98 My direction is good if I pay attention to cues I primarily use the sun. If I am in a mall with family and its a while I get turned around until I find a reference and reorient. If it is known I can describe it with great detail and I can almost construct it in my head like build it in wireframe everything is black with no depth or texture. I think it is a tool I developed to cope like I build a database. I almost feel like I can walk the dark structure in my mind but only the association to the time to walk the distance.
I discovered I have aphantasia a few years ago. I always thought people who were speaking of seeing something in their head were using it as an expression, meaning they could remember it, so I didn't really question it until it randomly came up more in debth in a conversation. My dreams never have images. But I still know what's happening. I imagine the difference is like between reading a script vs watching a play/movie. I love messing around in photoshop because I can make my thoughts something I can see 😊
I found out that I may have aphantasia today during an engineering class when the teacher told us to “take apart the cube in our minds,” to find unique nets for it. I was stuck unable to do the assignment because I couldn’t imagine anything. Made me think I was crazy 😔
I have Aphantasia. All I see is darkness, yet I could tell you what you wore to a concert we went to 15 years ago. I don’t get a visual just an eruption of words and thoughts. I have a strong inner monologue that is constantly going😩. Even when I’m talking, I can hear it remembering things like... tan shorts, red shirt, blue hat. While I’m talking🤦🏽♀️. It’s like background noise. I can also play the soundtrack to my favorite songs in my head every note. When I day dream, there is no visual. I can literally hear myself talking in my head like I’m reading myself a story. I just can’t see it.
I would hate to be sick enough to have a high fever, but man I'd love to "see" an image. That has always seemed like Science Fiction to me. I still sometimes find it difficult to believe people can actually imagine picture, sounds, smells, taste, and touch.
@@0UmAndUh0 if you want to get a good idea of what It would look like to dream in first person, Look at various things in whatever room you're in and squint your eyes really hard to the point where they're almost closed and everything is dim and blurry. For me the other senses are harder to conjure up when imaging it, But this is roughly what seeing through the mind's eye would look like.
I believe I have congenital aphantasia. I've always dreamed in images, and remember several very vivid scary dreams I had when I was little. Now, as an adult who suffers from chronic pain, sometimes I have horrible vivid nightmares. I don't like this video's description of aphantasia as "not possessing an imagination." I think I'm very creative and have an imagination. I just don't see pictures in my mind's eye.
didnt realize people could visualize in their heads, and it makes me kinda sad to think that my brain is "broken" even though i was born with aphantasia, i can see imagery in dreams and hear sounds if they were significant though, and ive gotten better at remembering my dreams recently
Woah the pupil constricting thing is so cool!!! I literally just tried it by filming myself imagining the sun and then a lightbulb and it looks like a cat hunting lol. Best fact I’ve learned in months.
I have congenital, I never realized that people could make images in their brain. I just thought everyone was just saying that they could see something in their head but not actually, basically just lying because I couldn't see it so I thought no one else could. I can picture things in my head but I just can't visually see it, say I am reading a book, I can imagine what is happening but I can't SEE it. I always thought that was how you imagine things, I never realized people can imagine things in their head with actual color and see actual things. It's actually really hard when I'm drawing to plan out things before I draw it. The weird thing is, is that I do REALLY well with maps, I have an okay memory but I can memorize landmarks or whatever you call them amazingly. I am, according to my mom and some other family members, the only one that can do well with maps.
According to the generally accepted theory of how imagery works in the brain, there are actually separate areas used for object imagery and spatial imagery. Similarly to visual perception, visual imagery is processed in multiple areas of the brain, so having more success with spatial imagery than object imagery can certainly make sense according to how the brain is laid out. According to several studies, object imagery is processed lower in the brain, in the inferior temporal lobe, while spatial imagery is processed higher in the brain, in the posterior parietal lobe.
For as long as I can remember I've never been able to picture images. It's always been black, no noise, or anything. My memory isn't the best and usually I can only remember some things with triggers. Even things that I remember aren't visual it's sort of a concept I guess you'd call it. It's hard for me to be emotional about things from the past because of the lack of connection. It's hard to explain but I've dealt with it for a long time.
People with better mental imagery seem to have better autobiographical memories of episodes that occurred in their lives including sights, smells, etc. While people with aphantasia generally report worse memory.
If you haven't come across it already, you might be interested in information about SDAM-Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. [Side rant: that's a really awful name, all the more so because the opposite side of the spectrum they named Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. You'd think they could come up with terms that weren't so value-laden!] In short, someone with SDAM has little or no first-person episodic memory. Typically, they have little ability to voluntarily recall most things from their past. Things can trigger memories, but those memories are more like a third-person accounting of the remembered event-i.e., they can remember _that_ it happened but cannot remember themselves experiencing the remembered event.
Im in my 40's and just learnt this 2 days ago and as person from a young age i loved drawing but found i could copy a picture perfectly but trying to draw one from imagination i struggled. 😢😅😊
Talking about this stuff to a non-aphantasiac was very insightful. When trying to explain how I think, I realized how hard it was to put it into words; because it's so abstract. Where other people seemingly have inner monolog and pictures, I have abstract Mindmaps that float around waiting to be connected by forces in the dark. Often times I just sit there and stare into space, not actively thinking anything consciously, but waiting for the darkness to spew out an answer, a concept or an idea. That's the best I can describe it. I barely ever have an inner monolog. I think abstractly, and certainly faster than it would take me to formulate everything into a monolog as I'm thinking it. So it rarely happens purely for efficiency purposes. That of course results in a lack of practice and thus a low ability to articulate myself. But man, I'm still so fascinated by the fact that y'all can imagine things in your head. Like picture loved ones, imagine whole worlds, bring a book to life. Or decide what food you wanna pick at the restaurant because you can actually imagine them all and then pick based on real-time judgement. I have a list of good and bad food. That means I have most of the menu items labeled as good. And since they're all good, they're all equal. I cannot value one over the other based on their ranking. And I can't imagine the specific taste and texture to decide which I'd like more right now. I have to pick one of many "Good" options purely at random. Or maybe I'm just also autistic or whatever. Seriously though, odds are pretty high lol
When I imagine something like a “theater of the mind” for my D&D group, I imagine fuzzy non-color models that I cannot see, but kinda sense are there? Like, close your eyes and touch an object next to you. Then, with your eyes closed, move your hand away. Then, imagine you were touching that object again. It’s like a phantom object you’re holding. You may not be able to see it, but you can almost feel it’s shape. I can make these move around in my head. I “assign” colors like a name tag 🏷 that comes up when I focus on “what color is the clerics robe” and I think “yellow” for example. If I try to imagine a yellow cloak, the best I can do is imagine a phantom, non visual cloak, and tell myself “this is yellow” like I’m actually looking at a yellow pencil/yellow flower. I can’t see anything, just sense it
Oh, my gosh, I can relate with you. I imagine in the same way. In school we should imagine stuff a lot, like a beach. In my head i was like planing a picture. There is water, at the top left is sun and next to me is sandcastle (is that an English word?). So when the teacher ask, I could describe it with colour, because I actively decided what had which colour, like a tag I put to the object, but without thinking about it, it wouldn't have a colour, cause I didn't see anything. Now when someome tells me to imagine a place, I sense/just know where everything is. When I imagine a museum, I know the layout of the place, I know that in front of me is a painting, I know behind me walks an old couple, but I don't see any of it. So I don't know, which colour has the wall, what is on the painting or what voice has the old man behind me. That is why in the beginning I didn't believe I have aphantasia, because I thought I could imagine things(and in a way I definitely do). But when friends ask about coulur or details, there wasn't any of it, because when I didn't thought about it, they didn't have it. My apple wasn't green or red. It has and has not a stalk until I decide it has one or not. Schrödingers Apple ^^ But in the end that will just be a tag and didn't change how I imagine it, because it will still be the Same concept of an apple. I know its position in relation to me and other objects, but I don't ever see anything of it.
YES, YES, THE SAME! Until yesterday, I could imagine, visualize, even thought I had a great imagination. Yesterday, while I was scrolling the instagram reels, I came across a video about this stupid thing. Then I obsessed with it, I started searching. And now, I can’t imagine as before, and I’m started to doubt that I was able to do it. I wish I had never found out about this. I look at other people’s comments, some say ah, I can see everything great. Some say how can people see in their minds? But I don’t know what I think. Do I see? No. Don’t I see? No. Oh I have a headache from thinking about it
Can people without aphantasia actually SEE things while their eyes are closed? For me it’s more that I can feel it (not literally, I think of it but I can’t see anything at all). I don’t know if I have aphantasia, I’m confused.
thats weirdly familiar its kinda the same for me i think but i really dont get how people can pop like an actual image with colours in their minds thats absurd for me
Yes, people without aphantasia can experience something very similar to seeing even with their eyes closed. One great piece of evidence for this is the Perky Effect, where people with good mental imagery can be tricked into thinking that they imagined something that was projected faintly onto a screen. In other words, it's so similar to seeing that you can fool people into thinking that their imagination created an image that is actually real.
I'm over 40 years old and only a couple of years ago I realized that my mind is both blind and deaf. For me the word "thought" has always meant a kind of an impulse of information. It seems to be mind-blowing for many people to find out that it's entirely possible to think without "converting" the information into sound or pictures. And now I also realize that many people meditate for years and years to achieve a state of mind that I have every day. I always wondered how it seems to be considered nearly super-human to "quiet" or "empty" your mind.
"Broken" is too big a word. A broken clock cannot tell time. This here is a disfunction, a deficit, more like having software version with less function ;)
I have Aphantasia, I have since birth, unless it can caused by head trauma. I never realized what I was missing and how things like "minds eye" actually made sense until I was maybe 30ish... give or take. Kinda makes me sad... especially when it comes to loved ones who have passed
When my teachers asked me to imagine something i thought they meant to think of something so my way of "imagining" things was by literally just having a mental conversation like i could come up with a whole story but i won't be able to actually visualize it and this always bothered because when i was younger from time to time I'd feel like I'm actually imagining something but in an instant it'd begone and i wouldn't be able to remember it so now debating whether i was actually picturing things or did i trick myself into thinking that i actually saw something
Yes, that's a common thing to happen to people with aphantasia. They assume people mean something more abstract when they talk about picturing things in your mind.
I know I'm pretty late to the video lol but I when I'm reading my brain likes to imagine things but it is really frustrating because I can't actually see it, I have congenital Aphantasia.
If I were to close my eyes and try to imagine something in the day, I wouldn't see anything. However if I close my eyes to go to bed and start to imagine while I'm on the cusp of dreaming, I will see stuff and it freaks me out. While I may not be able to imagine while I am awake, I do dream vividly.
I have aphantasia, it really REALLY sucks The worst part is that my family thinks that because I think I have it that I blocked imagination because I won’t let myself do it. I just want to get a proper diagnosis :(
Unfortunately, there really isn't much in the way of a proper diagnosis for aphantasia. Unlike more conventionally "diagnosed" disorders like aphasia, aphantasia is not seen as highly disruptive to a person's life and therefore nobody has crafted categorical diagnosis plans for aphants... although, with more scientific investigation, it's possible that such diagnoses could be based on some sort of testing. A big problem is the objective measurement of aphantasia is still not agreed upon. Because mental imagery is still such a subjective thing, most people self-diagnose themselves. Perhaps someone will show in a scientific study that aphantasia is detrimental to some people's lives, and then more will be done about this. For example, there are theories that aphants have worse autobiographical (episodic) memories, and that this could lend itself to depression.
It would drive me nuts when my therapist would tell me to meditate, and imagine sitting on a beach with the waves crashing down.. I'm like.. I literally see black, I can't invision anything. I never even heard about this until youtube, like.. How did a therapist not know about this?
Super interesting, thanks! Meanwhile, I have just realized probably part of my bad people memory stems from not being able to imagine their faces in my mind. I am perfectly capable of imagining pictures, but when it comes to people I usually remember the way they act or dress more than what their faces look like... I don't think I could draw a single friends' face from memory, not even my room mates' whom I see every single day.
That's cool, hopefully this video gave you new perspective on those ideas/experiences! When dreaming I can get faces, but absolutely not when I'm wide awake. Sometimes just before I fall asleep I'll get pseudo-dreams and can see like, my cat's face or something.
I believe this happened to me ! I know for a fact that I use to have the ability to see images in my mind when I was younger very vivid details like people's faces etc...I ended up having black out spells and one episode I hit my head and was blacked out! got a concussion... after that...nothing!!! And I didn't even realize it was gone until I started to try to do visualization excerices.... But the weird thing is I see the mental pictures now if I keep my eyes open...like a daydream or staring off into space... whatever I want to visualize I can but I have to keep my eyes open...if I close my eyes nothing but a still black picture😓 Honestly I miss being able to see vivid mental pictures when I close my eyes but I don't think I'll want to now...it'll probably scare the heck out of me lol
Sometimes when I read something. I can visualize things but sometimes stuff like buildings and staircases literally disappear. But most of the time at school when a teacher said imagine “blah blah blah” I could never do that. I only realized this wasn’t normal today.
Sounds like mental imagery is a tool that your brain only uses sometimes. For most people, really concrete words (objects, etc.) are easier to mentally image than abstract words (concepts, etc.) which may help explain what you're experiencing, too.
This is all new to me just heard about it . I dont understand, i thought all human beings could visualize imagery or anything in their minds I do it all the time.
The weird thing for me is like I can know (kinda) what something looks like and my brain knows that but I can’t “see” it with any significant detail or really anything else. All I can do is think about how something looks. I never had a “breakthrough” where I learned people can see in their heads because I think I probably have partial aphantasia or smth. But for example I can’t translate what I know something looks like out of my head, like if I were to attempt to draw something. I usually forget 90% of the important things even though I know what something looks like. Edit: the case with the guy near the end of the video is close to what I’m like, mine would be the congenital version though.
Researchers generally agree that there are different severity levels, but I'm not sure they'd call it "partial" aphantasia. I referred to mild aphantasia as dysphantasia in my dissertation, but that term hasn't really caught on either.
Whenever i close my eyes i cant see anything. It’s just black. I can think of an apple but i wont even see its shape or color. Its just that i know what an apple looks like, but i cant see or imagine it? Is this also aphantasia? Like i just remember what my friends look like but if i close my eyes i cannot see their faces?
I didn't realize how much "dimmer" my mental pictures are than other people's until I started taking THC edibles. When I am high, strain-depending, my ability to picture things in my mind jumps by at least 300%-- normally, the images are faint to the point that I'm often not sure whether I'm seeing the image, or just being told it's there. This is particularly true with faces-- ordinarily, I can not picture someone's face (though I can recall, clearly, a photo of that same face), and when I'm high, it's like they're there.
I always wondered how people described things to a sketch artist because I could absolutely never and come to find out it’s because people can actually picture things?! I freaked when I found out people don’t have an internal monologue and I do and come to find out some people can picture photos?! I’d love to know if those who can picture images and those who have an internal monologue are or aren’t related. I have a monologue but can only manifest images when I’m extremely tired and up until recently never chose what I saw (still can’t completely) recently I’ve been practicing on manifesting images I WANT to see and even then it took me weeks to get a bunny on command,then a house,dog,cat etc. mostly I just see floating images and almost always not pleasant:
Excuse me. When you say you have an internal monologue are you saying you can think to yourself in your head or are you saying you literally hear a voice, like a sound? You hear the sound of someone speaking to you... but it's you?
@@curiaregis9479 that’s a tough one because do I “hear” my own voice with my ears,no but I do hear it in my mind. For instance I can hear a song in my head and the voices of the singers perfectly but it’s not as if my ears are hearing it,just my mind creating the sounds from memory. It’s super cool because I lived to years without a working car radio 🤣
@@leahminer4494 Yeah, I get songs stuck in my head, but I just know the song. It's like it runs along a track but I wouldn't call what I'm experiencing sound in any way, shape or form. It's like my aphantasia, I can "know" things but nothing in my mind resembles any shape or color, like a picture. There's just nothing. So I'm curious. You're not hearing with your ears but does it resemble sound?
@@curiaregis9479 that makes sense because I KNOW what a apple looks like but I could imagine it enough to see the image in my head or put it in paper,however to hear a song,I hear every voice I’m it’s own glory,every instrument in its own set. It’s as if the stereo were on beside me.
I Have aphantasia ans lately I have been really jealous of people with phantasia. I’ve always done really well in school and I was valedictorian but I always hated reading books because I found they were really boring I have found out that it’s because I cannot picture the story in my head. I was wondering if there was a way to acquire phantasia? Please answer
Several people have claimed to get better at mental imagery through two methods: practice, or psychedelic drugs. Personally, I've tried practicing my mental imagery -- by attempting to visualize shapes and colors just after waking up and just before bed when my brain's ready for some dreaming, and paying closer attention to opportunities to use mental imagery in day-to-day situations like navigating. I still suck at it, but I'm better than I was a few years ago. I haven't tried the psychedelics route!
then how do I know if I have? Congenital Aphantasia was said to may have poor imagery does mine count as one for the first case: I can picture the sky, I can picture a cloud, pretty color sky blue and white clouds, a rainbow I can imagine it with colors, with its proper colors like red, yellow, green, blue, purple but if you asked me the colors or the order of it, I wouldnt be able to tell you unless I specifically concentrated the image; strictly, into the rainbow like I know the colors are there when putting it as a general picture, yet somehow I cannot tell you what colors they are. like when you do a "find the differences" you dont notice the differences until you strictly look for them does that count as a poor imagery to be congenital aphantasia? or is it just my brain ignoring small details? like when your eyes follow a mosquito and suddenly it disappears from eyesight because your brain sees it's a small dot, so it decides to ignore it from the picture for being too small to consider visualization for the second case: Whenever Im talking or even typing like right now, I dont imagine the actions of the words I mean, I do sometimes, not always the case, for the majority of the case as I talk or type I imagine the words I want to speak, like if I say "I want to eat an ice cream" I dont imagine the ice cream or me eating the ice cream or even just my lips syncing to the words I say I just imagine, precisely that: "I want to eat ice cream" - the letters, the words, the sentence is what I think. I will imagine the Ice cream but I'd do that if I want to, rather than involuntarily
Thinking about this issue, many of my memories have photo snapshots as reference. If I think about riding horses as a kid, I can remember what the stable looked like, the horse, his saddle, the riding ring, my hard black English riding hat, etc., all stored as photos or mental videos as well as the sensation of riding, my feelings, etc.
I think I may have acquired apantasia , I suffered several head trauma's as a child, I see only black when I try to visualise something, only discovered this condition yesterday and can relate to so much of it, and now for the first time, I am beginning to understand why I think the way I do. very eye opening excuse the pun
It's a great pun! According to one big survey that was only half-published last I checked (Zeman et al., 2020) most people with aphantasia do not discover the condition until they are 20 years old or older -- so you are in good company!
@@ARTexplains I am literally asking everyone I know if they can visualise now haha, I have got this far without it, and don't miss what I never knew about.
I have aphantasia, ever since I learned about it periodically I get depressed and start lucid dreaming just to imagine because for some reason I can imagine when I'm dreaming... I will literally spend my lucid dream lying in my bed imagining trees or something... It feels so liberating to be able to imagine... I truly envy you people, I have a theory that I developed it instead of having it since birth because I broke my head when I was a kid falling backwards. It doesn't make much sense though because I remember when I was still a kid, just older, complaining to myself about how difficult it was to imagine something and not being able to imagine a face... Most likely I had a crappy imagination to begin with and simply lost the ability growing up. The first period I tried to imagine I would manage sometimes to almost give myself a seizure and imagine for a little while some random shit my brain was cooking up, it felt more like bending myself backwards to look at a screen where stuff was already playing though, I wouldn't really call it imagining, but it gave me an idea that people truly can see images in their head, it hasn't happened since though.
I can't picture the colors of a rainbow, but I know them. it's weird like I can't picture a three-dimensional object but I know how many sides it has and I can draw it
I still don’t understand why this is a condition to be “diagnosed”. Like, take the example of writing and reading - does one HAVE TO visually imagine what they are reading or writing? Why can’t this just be “here’s another way people process information”? !!!
I didn’t realize that when people talked about imagining things that they literally see pictures in their mind! My mind was blown when I realized I was the weird one’ 😅😂
Blew my mind when i found this out as i thought i had brain damage for not being able to form images in my mind & when i was trying to do some counselling the mental exercises they asked me to do i faked it because they always started with "Imagine Blah in your mind etc.." which i just cant do, & these things made me way more aware of the fact, which caused me some stress, after watching this it appears i have partial Aphantasia as sometimes but not often an image albeit blury will pop into my mind usually after waking & not for long more like a dream residue, but i can never actually focus & manipulate any images in my mind & the harder i try the more i fail. Also i know i dream but am never able to recall what i am dreaming about unless it is very emotional as i will often wake with feelings but no actual memory as to why i am feeling a certain way.
Yeah I feel that -- I have very poor imagery. It might be due to damage to the brain but it might also just be the way that your brain developed! Brains are wild.
I feel like this is the reason why I'm more able to deal with boredom than a lot of people. I can sit and watch Jurassic Park in my head or rewrite star wars. I'll often go on autopilot and daydream something then realise I've just driven miles not seeing a thing. I obviously am still aware of my driving because I didn't crash... Its just very odd when it happens
Yeah, I agree. The word broken refers to the acquired disorder, not developmental aphantasia. Having different mental imagery abilities from other people is normal. But in someone who HAD the ability and then LOST it, that's when something got broken. Do you see the difference there?
I hear what you're saying, but for the purposes of a title that communicates the set of topics clearly, there isn't a better word than break. Change isn't a synonym for break and would include more than the "acquired" conditions that I intend this series to include. Lost is a decent word but it doesn't include conditions where something is diminished rather than lost. Break/Broken is the word that I've chosen to use consistently with all of the acquired disorders that I discuss. As someone with poor mental imagery myself, I understand why the word might feel negative but it is not commentary on the person, but commentary on the situation.
When i tell you i was SHOOK when i found out people actually see things with their eyes closed🤯...I see NOTHING just straight ⚫️. I just rest in the feeling of things, I conceptualize an image but i don't actually see it. I dream pretty normal but meditation & things where you have to conjure an imagine in your mind? nah. I wish! I can feel the feeling of seeing it..if that makes sense😂 I'm very emotion/ other sensory based when 'visualizing'. Damn i'm kinda jealous of other people's brains🫠😂 I bet their meditations & visualizations Slapp!!✨️ Also, I don't have an inner monologue that people talk about having. Alot of the research I've done shows a link between that and aphantasia. I'm so curious how that works.. like people hear a voice in their mind 24/7?? Is it yourself or like disconnected from you? What's it talkin about?🤔😅 like i'm genuinely so curious! I have thoughts i think in my mind but i don't audibly hear them.. Alot of people I've asked say it can be annoying and very self critiquing even mean at times which sounds Awful😟😣honestly just the thought of it in general kinda freaks me out😬 like constant chatter all day everyday only you can hear? I'd go insane..both of these concepts really fascinate me to no end!!😌 the human mind is so complex! Quite interesting.. I could talk psychology & neuroscience all day💯
I can visualize things in my mind vividly, and when I often daydream the sounds of the things I’m thinking about auto fill in. Strangely though, whenever someone tells me to imagine something or I start actively thinking about how I’m doing it, I struggle to. Is there a reason for this?
I don't think I have aphantasia, but I have always struggled creatively. I can visualize an apple and rotate it with some effort. I can imagine what I look like dribbling a basketball between my legs. I create a mental image of characters in a book. But I don't actually see it in the same way that it feels like i see when I dream. When I am sleep deprived, I visualize more readily and, it can feel like I am not in control of them. Like the visuals are forming my inner monologue as opposed to my inner monologue forming the visuals.
I always had the ability to imagine but it’s not that detailed, or colorful. If you say imagine 3 spheres, I imagine a dark room with 3 pale spheres and that’s it. Most people would give great detail. I also am bad at picturing things like in books, which is why I usually watch movies rather than read books, so I can actually understand what’s going on.
So can you people just replay a hole movie in your brain? And visually see Luke and Ben Kenobi sitting in Ben’s home? Can I train my brain to develop This?
I don’t understand how people with this condition can survive. How do they plan, process, do simple arithmetic, read exciting books?? Do they have no inner monologue either?
That's common -- I wrote about that discrepancy in belief (people with/without aphantasia not believing one another) in the Introduction section of my Dissertation. While I can't necessarily convince you, I will say that the evidence definitely supports the existence of both people with mental images and people without mental images. They struggle to relate to one another, generally.
You can actually SEE the imagery. You wouldn't be sceptical at all if you'd experienced it just before you fall asleep, have taken drugs, or done prolonged sleep deprivation (these are the times when I've been able to do it literally). Outside of those times, I can do the ordinary imagine things and sort of see them (but they're not projected outwardly)....similar to when you're absorbed in a book.
I can't visualise images in my head but I can draw things that I have drawn many times before (from a photo or from life) without having the thing in front of me. For example if I draw a face or a horse I work from a starting point and build up the image. If it's something I haven't drawn before even though it's a familiar thing like a building that I see every day I wouldn't be able to to draw it or form any real mental image. Weird.
That's a fantastic point -- there have been many arguments in the scientific literature over the years where researchers with GOOD mental imagery insist that everyone must experience it that way, while researchers with POOR mental imagery insist that everyone must experience it that way!! There was even a study that showed a correlation between the beliefs of the researchers and how 'good' their mental imagery was (I am blanking on the reference but I remember it was in the early 2000s and Kosslyn was an author but not the first author, lol)
I can't conceptualize how you can just pull up pictures of stuff in your head...I can bring something to mind as easily with my eyes open as shut. It is always all black when I close my eyes.
How do people with aphantasia remember things and elaborate thoughts? Like I only think with pictures, if I couldn't visualize the place I need to go to, I wouldn't visualize the street and therefore wouldn't be able to go.
Can’t imagine how people who can’t see images in their mind like What do you all think when I say (let’s say he is someone you know ) John ? As for me If someone says someone I know I will immediately imagine what they look like and also something related to what we’re talking about
Imagining faces is a good conversation topic to have between someone with aphantasia and someone without, because in many cases both people will have a hard time understanding/believing the other person. However, we know from a Neuro perspective that brains are capable of both experiences (imagining faces versus being unable to imagine faces)
For me, audiobooks give me the feeling of being able to imagine things because i can focus more on immersing myself instead of having to read the letters. Its hard to describe because its not actually seeing it but more like "feeling?" it.
I am currently writing an urban fantasy novel, but I seem to have some sort of aphantasia-I can't visualise locations, draw mental maps, nor rotate 3D (or even 2D) objects in my minds eye. I've always struggled with reading fiction because I can't see what the book is describing to me, I just process it as words. This also translates to struggles playing chess because I can't visualize the board, pieces, or planned lines of attack, despite practice or training. I've also struggled with more abstract forms of mathematics despite always having high marks in physics, I speculate for the same reason. That being said, I don't see it as a disability, but rather, an alternate perception, and I have adjusted my writing style accordingly.
this video has led some people by the looks of it to have self diagnosed themselves with this difference, yet a very important factor in my opinion is missed. If I shut my eyes, should I be able to conjure animage in front of me if I imagine it or should I be able to conjour an image/picture in my mind that I can 'see' despite the fact I cant manipulate the imageto see it in frony of me when my eyes are closed.
People see things in their mind?!?! Every time my teacher told my class to visualise everyone except me could actually see things, literally, I have a hard time imagining
Hi thank you so much for your vedio very informative.I now discovered that i have aphantasia syndrome im 46 now and i always see imagine things in my head for exanple if u see a trees sometimes i see an image 8n rhe tree like there was a face please help me i wanna cure myself
Wild. I can build whole worlds. I have multiple worlds I visit in dreams too, places that are familiar because I've dreamed of them over decades...all imaginary dream worlds. When I wake up I remember areas and laugh at how it mirrors real life. Often I forget about these places until I dream about them again, and it's like I never left.
Aphantasia doesn't mean you don't have an imagination! It means you can't visualise with 'the minds eye'. You can still imagine but it's an entirely different way of imagining because you don't do it with the images. Saying someone can't imagine tho is like saying they can't have their own original thoughts and ideas which people with Aphantasia can still do, they just can't visualise those ideas.
Yep. And there's even evidence that there is more than one kind of mental imagery in the mind's eye with some information being visual and some being spatial--it seems that some people are able to do one type but not the other.
Sadly that's literally what it does mean - Zeman's team coined the term aphantasia, derived from the Ancient Greek word phantasia (φᾰντᾰσῐ́ᾱ), which means 'imagination', and the prefix a- (ᾰ̓-), which means 'without'.
AFAIK I have congenital aphantasia the obvious problem with self-diagnosis is the nature of the tests It's pretty much "can you picture X in your mind? 1-5" repeated about 30 times
There's not a lot of evidence for getting rid of aphantasia, unfortunately. Some people claim that meditation and/or certain drugs can help, but I haven't seen much concrete proof of that.
It took less than a day to figure it out, I only see stuff in my dreams but I have congenital aphantasia. I think self diagnosing is ok I mean I know myself lol, no need to pay for testing.
What's interesting for me, is how even though I can't see things in my mind, I can *hear* them. For example, when someone who does *not* have aphantasia, thinks of a waterfall, they can see it in their mind's eye. I don't see it, but I hear it. I hear the roar of the waterfall.
There was a Star Trek episode where one of he crew explains that he can’t see his father’s face. They came up with some Ferengi explanation but I wasn’t impressed. I never see anyone’s face in my mind anyway. I’ve had several appointments with my Doctor but there is usually a long initial delay before figuring out who exactly I’m talking too. At my age that's usually a bad sign. I lost my Mom in a crowd one time. It wasn't till she sneezed that I recognized her.
I have a vivid color rich emotionally charged imagination. That sounds great but there's *so* many times I've wished I couldn't. Reliving or imagining what happened is haunting at times. I'd imagine (haha) being born that way would be a case of not missing what you don't know. I'm a bit envious
I used to be able to visualize things. As a child I saw a program about brain surgery on tv. It scared me, and for weeks I kept seeing this brain when I shut my eyes. It suddenly stopped and I was never able to fully visualize again. I can vaguely visualize repetitive things. like what my house looks like, but If I randomly met someone in the street I would not be able to tell you what they looked like. I can still see in dreams. I wonder if it is a self defense mechanism in the brain, Ironically, afraid of seeing the brain I saw in my childhood.
I believe this kind of videos are making a lot of normal people think they have aphantasia. Because they think they were supposed to ACTUALLY SEE an image painting when closing their eyes. It is not like that. You see black when close your eyes, but you can imagine something.
That's an interesting thought Nolan -- I hope that more research is done into what the advantages of aphantasia might be, because in theory, people with this condition might be better at processing language, for example. More research is needed, however!
So I can’t see numbers. I can’t see letters of the alphabet in my head either. Heaven forbid someone calls out a telephone number, or a price of an object! And unless I have paper and pen to write down the spelling of something dictated, it’s gone in an instant. But, I can recall incidents from when I was three years old. Is that aphantasia or should I just accept my deficit?🇨🇦
I could see images so clearly as a child. Now I see nothing in my mind. I never noticed when this happened, but I’m betting it was around the time I had brain surgery in ‘94.
I was in a coma 40 years ago due to meningitis and encephalitis. I dont see any colors or pictures but im an artist and i create vivid surreal images with no problem. It feels like there is a part of my brain where it happens but i cant see it in my minds eye. What is actually happening here?
My book, which expands upon Aphantasia and all of the videos in the The Ways Your Brain Can Break playlist, is available now! a.co/d/4zXaocz
I find it very difficult to believe people can actually SEE things in their minds.
You're not the only one who feels that way! But it's true.
Woah..I was just thinking that I find it very difficult to believe people who can't. God bless tho!
it's a complicated world :p if you don't have something it's hard to believe how others have it. Just like blind people must imagine how others can see or hearing for deaf people etc. For me it's difficult to believe people can't see things in their minds ^^.
It’s like remembering something but instead of remembering a fact, it’s a visual image
fr...like why cant i 😫😫😫
My whole life since childhood everyone told me how rich imagination I have, but today realising that I've actually never SAW the things I was fantasising about is shocking. Even when reading a book and trying to see the room, the colors or characters is really tough for me, I can't hold the picture in my mind, it's so abstract and it always changes like a psychedelic trip.
This!
Exactly. I'm exactly the same.
But slight difference.
I can generate dancing silver marionettes. Which is just mentally embossing or topography variation I guess.
That darkness we have. Is powerful. We don't have any image flood. We can work with form patiently there.
This fr!! especially with characters in a book..no matter what book the mmc & fmc always are the generally the same in my mind despite how they are depicted..if I try to put the description given its like the characters keep changing around in my mind like it won't stay 🙃😂
I remember in kindergarten we were playing a game where u win a prize. They told us to close our eyes and tell what colors we see. Everyone said smth like yellow, blue, etc. And as I child I was surprised because I saw only black, lol. I thought everyone was lying to get the prize.
This is a fun and interesting memory, thanks for sharing it :-)
I also see black what’s wrong with it
I think they were lying, I can picture things in my mind but i still dont see the colors, its weird to explain
@@Eyan- Nope. Most people can imagine colors on our minds. Just like we can recall things we have seen before and that's including colors. For example, surely it's not hard to imagine a rose in red. 🌹 But i do know it is hard for Aphantasics to do that on their mind, because they keep looking af the 'black' darkness at the back of their eyelids when closing eyes, instead of letting the eyes go to rest and letting the mind go into work for visualizing.
@@supertuesday600 Yeah I don’t know what I was saying a year ago because I can confidently say now that I can see colors in my head.
This explains so much! Meditation was always so hard for me - particularly when you’re told to imagine yourself engulfed in white light. It’s literally impossible for me
Yes, many people who identify with aphantasia find expressions like "imagine yourself engulfed in white light" or "imagine where you'll be in five years" to be metaphorical until they discover aphantasia -- and that others take those expressions more literally!
For me meditation is easier, I have a empty dark completely quiet box to be in
@@Nick.964 Quiet? You don't have an inner monologue?
Exactly! First realized something was different when I tried to meditate. Couldn't see a thing, asked my kids if they could see, for example, a red rose. No problem for them.
@@helendycha2790 I never knew other people had these issues until seeing this video. Now when u said u asked your kids if they could picture a red rose I tried to do it myself. For a fleeting moment I can picture a rose but I can’t hold it in my mind and it’s at a distance - if that makes sense…? It doesn’t have any detail.
Mine is congenital and I had no idea people could literally see things in their heads until I was an adult. I’ve always struggled creatively because I have the intense need to create but literally cannot image what I’m trying to make whether it be music, art, or writing. I don’t mind so much though because I never get images stuck in my head that I can’t get rid of.
Sounds like a hidden perk to aphantasia!
I know exactly what you mean about that struggle. I also have a great need to create (music and art) and, like you, am frustrated by my inability to imagine what something will sound or look like until I create it.
i found out when my uncle told me about it last year. im 11 and im actually sad about it xd
Yes I have terrible to zero visualisation but my biggest skill is creativity. I do sketch with a lot of erratic lines and find my way of image making through actually making the marks on paper because I cannot do that in my head. I have to source things to copy. It's a different way of working. But can have upsides also.
@@autisticlettuce dont be sad, I'm an artist with it. You can eventually rewire other parts of your brain and imagine things. They just aren't visual.
It’s really weird for me, since I can see images in dreams and sometimes involuntarily, but if I try to visualize it then It’s really hard, I can only describe it based on memories, but not actually visualize it, it’s really weird
Inner blindness is a Channel that could give you some good insights in youre mind
on youre way of perceiving ;)
Yes, how you 'see' things in dreams is exactly how we visualize things while awake. It is like recalling memories. Since u can see images in dreams, I suggest you try to recall your dreams immediately the next time you just wake up. And see if your mind can recall some visual details. Hope it helps. 😉
Same for me too, I see dreams like they are real but don’t see any visualizations. I just can describe it, however I’d love to see it.
I always thought "picture in your mind" was a figure of speech for "think about."
it both is and isn't
Unfortunately I have Aquired Aphantasia and it's actually caused me considerable difficulty in adjusting to my new reality. Until 20 years ago, I was lucky enough to be exceptionally gifted with mental imagery. I could literally imagine anything I wanted with massive clarity, but not just still images. I could play back entire scenes in my head, including sights, sounds and smells. My dreams were so real, it would often take me some time after waking, to work out what was real and what was part of the dream. That part was a little unsettling sometimes, but not a big problem. For me, it was a very big part of how I remembered things. If I wanted to remember pretty much anything, I'd imagine it in my mind and could explore the details as though I were looking right at it. I've also always been a highly creative person, in many different ways and if I wanted to make something for example, I would imagine what I wanted to create and then could make it from that created memory. That all changed 20 years ago though. I had a head on collision, because I made a stupid mistake and although luckily no one was seriously hurt, my partner at the time was pregnant with our first child and for a few hours, well, let's just say I thought my mistake had brought that to a horrible end. Even though it turned out that our Son was thankfully unharmed, I most definitely wasn't. For the next couple of years, whether awake or asleep, my brain kept torturing me with the most horrific and vivid images and entire scenes. Things that no parent should ever see and not just of the crash and my feared outcome. I slipped deeper and deeper into depression and symptoms of ptsd and then eventually, I just stopped seeing anything in my mind at all. IN many ways, at the time, that was a great relief, due to what I'd been seeing, but with it came huge memory problems. I've struggled to properly remember things accurately ever since that ability to recall vivd images shut off. Now 20 years later, there has been minor improvement. I've started occasionally seeing detailed images in dreams, although nowhere near as vivid as they used to be, but good enough. I also now occasionally see brief flashes of reasonably detailed images unintentionally, but if I try to concentrate on those images, they disappear entirely. As for seeing images intentionally, forget it. If I'm really relaxed and there are no distractions, I can sometimes bring up the briefest of darkened, fuzzy images, but nothing more and they lack all of the additional details that they used to have. No sounds, no smells and I can make them move, so no scene replay at all. As with involuntary images, if I try to concentrate on them, they vanish instantly. So in my case, it doesn't appear to be physical brain damage that's caused my Aphantasia, although I did possibly suffer very minor, (undiagnosed) brain damage from whiplash, which caused a loss of muscle memory, (I had to retrain my hands to do things like how to tie my shoes and use a knife and fork for example), but it seems mine was caused by trauma. I've struggled with it a lot over the years, but until recently, I didn't know what it was called or that other people had it too. I thought it was just me and in some ways, it's a relief to know that it isn't and possibly even gives me hope that if mine is trauma triggered as I suspect, then maybe there's a way to get it back. Apologies this is such a long post by the way. I didn't start out intending it to be that way, lol.
You might want to try psychedelics in a professionally controlled environment. Then again, it might bring up painful visual memories.
Holy shit! I don't feel alone right now.
This is me! This is me right now. I'm so scared and terrified. This just happened to me a few days ago... I'm so scared. I just woke up and my brain... my mind... myself feels broken.
You literally described everything that I'm going through. I wish I could connect and talk things through with you because I feel like I'm going insane.
Thanks for sharing. Atleast you can still sleep after your traumatic incident. There's a man in Vietnam who cannot sleep forever after sustaining trauma during a war. It's on UA-cam. Anyway, I believe it could be mostly psychological injury to the mind and minimally physical. And with proper mental exercise, your condition might improve further. I would suggest doing relaxing meditation, where you place yourself at the most comfortable settings, put your mind at ease and let go of any anxiety, and just dwell on happy thoughts, and try recalling happy things, happy moments. I hope gradually, this would help you visualize things again. 😉
@@theonetruesarauniya Read my comment above. Hope it helps.
I just recently discovered aphantasia, but I have known for years that my mental imagery was not like others. I always tell people that I can feel the image rather than see the image. It's an outline, and it only stays as I am consciously thinking of it.
I found out I had aphantasia several years ago and the concept of people actually being able to SEE things in their head blew my mind; like you, I always thought phrases like “picture this” were metaphorical
I tend to have extremely vivid dreams and have a “vivid” imagination but I was in probably my mid twenties when I found out most people can voluntarily create mental imagery and it made me feel like I was playing life on hard mode 😆
Im a digital illustrator and people are always confused because instead of turning characters in my head, I will draw and redraw them into position on the canvas. I never knew why until realizing that everyone else just does it mentally
Lots of people don't learn that the way that they imagine or do things like turn thoughts into drawings are different until they are already adults. According to survey research into aphantasia, your experience sounds similar to lots of other people with aphantasia.
Yeah it really hurt my learning progress because when I was younger I was taught that using references is really bad. So it wasn't until this year that I realized that I should probably use them since I figured out that I had this disorder as well. I'm always so confused how people can just think of things and draw it, I can know things and draw it. It's like my art is based on math sort of, with proportions of people it's obvious that you can break down symmetry within every part and use that on the same radius to help with movement structures. I think that this would be much better explained if I could visually show someone because I can't really explain it that well.
i'm a graphic designer and have it. my husband does NOT understand but then has seen me get lost in the attic since i cant picture the layout of the house lol
I consider it a great tragedy that you still have less than 5,000 subscribers. Everyone. Share this video.
As always, you're too kind Mr. Beat 😅
Now he’s past 5k!!! :D
the hardest for me is to picture faces. I mean, I spend so much time with those people and know exactly what they look like and can describe them but i‘m not able to picture them in my mind. weird.
sometimes i get really sad when i have this :( because like you said, you spend so many times with eachother and then i forget how they look. it makes me really sad
Same. Can’t see faces in my mind 99.9% of the time. Sometimes though, if I imagine a person saying something or moving in a particular way, I can sort of picture them - by they have to be someone I have seen for years and years.
@Edwige Doris E. your pun deserves more recognition than it got
I’m the same. I can do those things but not actually picture it a face.
Until this I always wondered how people describe things to a sketch artist because I could absolutely never
I can imagine it’s just not visually based, additionally I have Aphantasia in all 5 main senses.
Oh hey! I cited your book on-screen and in my ref. section! Is that how you found the video? 😄
@tinylilmatt yes, if I told my mum to visualise a pouring a coffee, hearing how it sounds, smelling it, touching the mug to pick it up and then tasting it, she could do all those things without there being any coffee. People with Aphantasia often find it affects all or some of their minds senses and therefore, cannot do some or all of those things.
@@jewelsp.2326 This is me! The only thing I hear in my head is a faint version of my voice. No visuals, smells, tastes, touch or hearing others voices.
@@jewelsp.2326 I hear voices and I can actually hear songs in my had but I have aphantasia in all other senses
@@jewelsp.2326 I can't do any of those things... no pictures, smells, sounds, taste or touch sensations. Knew I wasn't good at visualizing, but have only found out this week that others have all of these abilities in their minds eye.
I'm hearing there are some advantages to having aphantasia but feel like I'm missing out tbh lol
As someone with hyperphantasia I always assumed everyone had the same level of visualization, I would often say things like "Just visualize this and you will understand what Im talking about".... Was an eye opener learning about the various levels on the spectrum and how people learn to adapt by growing different skillsets and methodologies to achieve the same goal.
I ALWAYS knew I was broke lol. This makes so much sense 🤷🏻♀️
Do you still dream in images?
@@ARTexplains my mom and i have this and we dream vividly. We had a conversation today about it. Analogy and description like a story is how we imagine things or visualize. It's like just knowing. it's hard to explain. Dreaming is the only time i see stuff and why i like sleeping so much.
I have this (the congenital kind), and people are always veeeery confused. Also I have an absolutely crap sense of direction because I can't form a proper mental map
My sense of direction is garbage as well. I get lost frequently in places I've been many times...
Emily Frahm omg my direction is TERRIBLE TOO!! maybe that's a real thing!
Me too! But I’ve always had a really good internal compass, like if someone where to spin me with a blindfold I’d know which wall I was facing
@@Toyro98 My direction is good if I pay attention to cues I primarily use the sun. If I am in a mall with family and its a while I get turned around until I find a reference and reorient. If it is known I can describe it with great detail and I can almost construct it in my head like build it in wireframe everything is black with no depth or texture. I think it is a tool I developed to cope like I build a database. I almost feel like I can walk the dark structure in my mind but only the association to the time to walk the distance.
Play some first person shooter games to develop a good mental map.
I discovered I have aphantasia a few years ago. I always thought people who were speaking of seeing something in their head were using it as an expression, meaning they could remember it, so I didn't really question it until it randomly came up more in debth in a conversation. My dreams never have images. But I still know what's happening. I imagine the difference is like between reading a script vs watching a play/movie. I love messing around in photoshop because I can make my thoughts something I can see 😊
I saw a script in my head when you said reading a script
I found out that I may have aphantasia today during an engineering class when the teacher told us to “take apart the cube in our minds,” to find unique nets for it. I was stuck unable to do the assignment because I couldn’t imagine anything. Made me think I was crazy 😔
I have Aphantasia. All I see is darkness, yet I could tell you what you wore to a concert we went to 15 years ago. I don’t get a visual just an eruption of words and thoughts. I have a strong inner monologue that is constantly going😩. Even when I’m talking, I can hear it remembering things like... tan shorts, red shirt, blue hat. While I’m talking🤦🏽♀️. It’s like background noise. I can also play the soundtrack to my favorite songs in my head every note. When I day dream, there is no visual. I can literally hear myself talking in my head like I’m reading myself a story. I just can’t see it.
I'm the exact same way.
This
Me too. My mind is blind but very noisy.
This explains why I had crazy, vivid dreams (still without color, though) when I recently had a fever. Thanks for the info :)
I have had similar feverish experiences with more vivid imagery
I would hate to be sick enough to have a high fever, but man I'd love to "see" an image. That has always seemed like Science Fiction to me. I still sometimes find it difficult to believe people can actually imagine picture, sounds, smells, taste, and touch.
@@0UmAndUh0
if you want to get a good idea of what It would look like to dream in first person, Look at various things in whatever room you're in and squint your eyes really hard to the point where they're almost closed and everything is dim and blurry.
For me the other senses are harder to conjure up when imaging it, But this is roughly what seeing through the mind's eye would look like.
I believe I have congenital aphantasia. I've always dreamed in images, and remember several very vivid scary dreams I had when I was little. Now, as an adult who suffers from chronic pain, sometimes I have horrible vivid nightmares. I don't like this video's description of aphantasia as "not possessing an imagination." I think I'm very creative and have an imagination. I just don't see pictures in my mind's eye.
didnt realize people could visualize in their heads, and it makes me kinda sad to think that my brain is "broken" even though i was born with aphantasia, i can see imagery in dreams and hear sounds if they were significant though, and ive gotten better at remembering my dreams recently
Woah the pupil constricting thing is so cool!!! I literally just tried it by filming myself imagining the sun and then a lightbulb and it looks like a cat hunting lol. Best fact I’ve learned in months.
I have congenital, I never realized that people could make images in their brain. I just thought everyone was just saying that they could see something in their head but not actually, basically just lying because I couldn't see it so I thought no one else could. I can picture things in my head but I just can't visually see it, say I am reading a book, I can imagine what is happening but I can't SEE it. I always thought that was how you imagine things, I never realized people can imagine things in their head with actual color and see actual things. It's actually really hard when I'm drawing to plan out things before I draw it. The weird thing is, is that I do REALLY well with maps, I have an okay memory but I can memorize landmarks or whatever you call them amazingly. I am, according to my mom and some other family members, the only one that can do well with maps.
According to the generally accepted theory of how imagery works in the brain, there are actually separate areas used for object imagery and spatial imagery. Similarly to visual perception, visual imagery is processed in multiple areas of the brain, so having more success with spatial imagery than object imagery can certainly make sense according to how the brain is laid out. According to several studies, object imagery is processed lower in the brain, in the inferior temporal lobe, while spatial imagery is processed higher in the brain, in the posterior parietal lobe.
For as long as I can remember I've never been able to picture images. It's always been black, no noise, or anything. My memory isn't the best and usually I can only remember some things with triggers. Even things that I remember aren't visual it's sort of a concept I guess you'd call it. It's hard for me to be emotional about things from the past because of the lack of connection. It's hard to explain but I've dealt with it for a long time.
People with better mental imagery seem to have better autobiographical memories of episodes that occurred in their lives including sights, smells, etc. While people with aphantasia generally report worse memory.
If you haven't come across it already, you might be interested in information about SDAM-Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory. [Side rant: that's a really awful name, all the more so because the opposite side of the spectrum they named Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory. You'd think they could come up with terms that weren't so value-laden!] In short, someone with SDAM has little or no first-person episodic memory. Typically, they have little ability to voluntarily recall most things from their past. Things can trigger memories, but those memories are more like a third-person accounting of the remembered event-i.e., they can remember _that_ it happened but cannot remember themselves experiencing the remembered event.
Im in my 40's and just learnt this 2 days ago and as person from a young age i loved drawing but found i could copy a picture perfectly but trying to draw one from imagination i struggled. 😢😅😊
Talking about this stuff to a non-aphantasiac was very insightful. When trying to explain how I think, I realized how hard it was to put it into words; because it's so abstract. Where other people seemingly have inner monolog and pictures, I have abstract Mindmaps that float around waiting to be connected by forces in the dark. Often times I just sit there and stare into space, not actively thinking anything consciously, but waiting for the darkness to spew out an answer, a concept or an idea. That's the best I can describe it. I barely ever have an inner monolog. I think abstractly, and certainly faster than it would take me to formulate everything into a monolog as I'm thinking it. So it rarely happens purely for efficiency purposes. That of course results in a lack of practice and thus a low ability to articulate myself.
But man, I'm still so fascinated by the fact that y'all can imagine things in your head. Like picture loved ones, imagine whole worlds, bring a book to life. Or decide what food you wanna pick at the restaurant because you can actually imagine them all and then pick based on real-time judgement. I have a list of good and bad food. That means I have most of the menu items labeled as good. And since they're all good, they're all equal. I cannot value one over the other based on their ranking. And I can't imagine the specific taste and texture to decide which I'd like more right now. I have to pick one of many "Good" options purely at random. Or maybe I'm just also autistic or whatever. Seriously though, odds are pretty high lol
When I imagine something like a “theater of the mind” for my D&D group, I imagine fuzzy non-color models that I cannot see, but kinda sense are there? Like, close your eyes and touch an object next to you. Then, with your eyes closed, move your hand away. Then, imagine you were touching that object again. It’s like a phantom object you’re holding. You may not be able to see it, but you can almost feel it’s shape.
I can make these move around in my head. I “assign” colors like a name tag 🏷 that comes up when I focus on “what color is the clerics robe” and I think “yellow” for example. If I try to imagine a yellow cloak, the best I can do is imagine a phantom, non visual cloak, and tell myself “this is yellow” like I’m actually looking at a yellow pencil/yellow flower. I can’t see anything, just sense it
Interesting, but I personally cannot relate. I'm sure other people can, though.
Oh, my gosh, I can relate with you. I imagine in the same way. In school we should imagine stuff a lot, like a beach. In my head i was like planing a picture. There is water, at the top left is sun and next to me is sandcastle (is that an English word?). So when the teacher ask, I could describe it with colour, because I actively decided what had which colour, like a tag I put to the object, but without thinking about it, it wouldn't have a colour, cause I didn't see anything.
Now when someome tells me to imagine a place, I sense/just know where everything is. When I imagine a museum, I know the layout of the place, I know that in front of me is a painting, I know behind me walks an old couple, but I don't see any of it. So I don't know, which colour has the wall, what is on the painting or what voice has the old man behind me.
That is why in the beginning I didn't believe I have aphantasia, because I thought I could imagine things(and in a way I definitely do). But when friends ask about coulur or details, there wasn't any of it, because when I didn't thought about it, they didn't have it. My apple wasn't green or red. It has and has not a stalk until I decide it has one or not. Schrödingers Apple ^^
But in the end that will just be a tag and didn't change how I imagine it, because it will still be the Same concept of an apple. I know its position in relation to me and other objects, but I don't ever see anything of it.
I kinda wish I never found out about this
YES, YES, THE SAME! Until yesterday, I could imagine, visualize, even thought I had a great imagination. Yesterday, while I was scrolling the instagram reels, I came across a video about this stupid thing. Then I obsessed with it, I started searching. And now, I can’t imagine as before, and I’m started to doubt that I was able to do it. I wish I had never found out about this. I look at other people’s comments, some say ah, I can see everything great. Some say how can people see in their minds? But I don’t know what I think. Do I see? No. Don’t I see? No. Oh I have a headache from thinking about it
Can people without aphantasia actually SEE things while their eyes are closed? For me it’s more that I can feel it (not literally, I think of it but I can’t see anything at all). I don’t know if I have aphantasia, I’m confused.
thats weirdly familiar its kinda the same for me i think but i really dont get how people can pop like an actual image with colours in their minds thats absurd for me
Yes, people without aphantasia can experience something very similar to seeing even with their eyes closed. One great piece of evidence for this is the Perky Effect, where people with good mental imagery can be tricked into thinking that they imagined something that was projected faintly onto a screen. In other words, it's so similar to seeing that you can fool people into thinking that their imagination created an image that is actually real.
ARTexplains Science and History wow that’s cool
I'm over 40 years old and only a couple of years ago I realized that my mind is both blind and deaf. For me the word "thought" has always meant a kind of an impulse of information. It seems to be mind-blowing for many people to find out that it's entirely possible to think without "converting" the information into sound or pictures. And now I also realize that many people meditate for years and years to achieve a state of mind that I have every day. I always wondered how it seems to be considered nearly super-human to "quiet" or "empty" your mind.
Hooray for an informative video on the topic that despite some people's comments, does not at all imply that people are "broken"!
Thank you!
"Broken" is too big a word. A broken clock cannot tell time. This here is a disfunction, a deficit, more like having software version with less function ;)
I have Aphantasia, I have since birth, unless it can caused by head trauma. I never realized what I was missing and how things like "minds eye" actually made sense until I was maybe 30ish... give or take. Kinda makes me sad... especially when it comes to loved ones who have passed
But I also have slight A-V Synesthesia, very slight but its there. And for a long time I thought I sounded batty
When my teachers asked me to imagine something i thought they meant to think of something so my way of "imagining" things was by literally just having a mental conversation like i could come up with a whole story but i won't be able to actually visualize it and this always bothered because when i was younger from time to time I'd feel like I'm actually imagining something but in an instant it'd begone and i wouldn't be able to remember it so now debating whether i was actually picturing things or did i trick myself into thinking that i actually saw something
Yes, that's a common thing to happen to people with aphantasia. They assume people mean something more abstract when they talk about picturing things in your mind.
I know I'm pretty late to the video lol but I when I'm reading my brain likes to imagine things but it is really frustrating because I can't actually see it, I have congenital Aphantasia.
THATS WHAT I THOUGHT TOO AND I JUST REALIZED PEOPLE AND ACTUALLY SEE THINGS IN THEIR HEAD
If I were to close my eyes and try to imagine something in the day, I wouldn't see anything. However if I close my eyes to go to bed and start to imagine while I'm on the cusp of dreaming, I will see stuff and it freaks me out.
While I may not be able to imagine while I am awake, I do dream vividly.
Great example of the divide between voluntary imagery and involuntary imagery!
I have aphantasia, it really REALLY sucks
The worst part is that my family thinks that because I think I have it that I blocked imagination because I won’t let myself do it.
I just want to get a proper diagnosis :(
Unfortunately, there really isn't much in the way of a proper diagnosis for aphantasia. Unlike more conventionally "diagnosed" disorders like aphasia, aphantasia is not seen as highly disruptive to a person's life and therefore nobody has crafted categorical diagnosis plans for aphants... although, with more scientific investigation, it's possible that such diagnoses could be based on some sort of testing. A big problem is the objective measurement of aphantasia is still not agreed upon. Because mental imagery is still such a subjective thing, most people self-diagnose themselves. Perhaps someone will show in a scientific study that aphantasia is detrimental to some people's lives, and then more will be done about this. For example, there are theories that aphants have worse autobiographical (episodic) memories, and that this could lend itself to depression.
I think about this inability as anything but broken. Really inconvenient as an artist, but in art i also feel like theres a benefit.
It would drive me nuts when my therapist would tell me to meditate, and imagine sitting on a beach with the waves crashing down..
I'm like.. I literally see black, I can't invision anything. I never even heard about this until youtube, like.. How did a therapist not know about this?
Super interesting, thanks!
Meanwhile, I have just realized probably part of my bad people memory stems from not being able to imagine their faces in my mind. I am perfectly capable of imagining pictures, but when it comes to people I usually remember the way they act or dress more than what their faces look like... I don't think I could draw a single friends' face from memory, not even my room mates' whom I see every single day.
That's cool, hopefully this video gave you new perspective on those ideas/experiences! When dreaming I can get faces, but absolutely not when I'm wide awake. Sometimes just before I fall asleep I'll get pseudo-dreams and can see like, my cat's face or something.
i think my imagination is fine but i also have trouble visualizing facial features
I believe this happened to me ! I know for a fact that I use to have the ability to see images in my mind when I was younger very vivid details like people's faces etc...I ended up having black out spells and one episode I hit my head and was blacked out! got a concussion... after that...nothing!!! And I didn't even realize it was gone until I started to try to do visualization excerices.... But the weird thing is I see the mental pictures now if I keep my eyes open...like a daydream or staring off into space... whatever I want to visualize I can but I have to keep my eyes open...if I close my eyes nothing but a still black picture😓
Honestly I miss being able to see vivid mental pictures when I close my eyes but I don't think I'll want to now...it'll probably scare the heck out of me lol
Sometimes when I read something. I can visualize things but sometimes stuff like buildings and staircases literally disappear. But most of the time at school when a teacher said imagine “blah blah blah” I could never do that. I only realized this wasn’t normal today.
Sounds like mental imagery is a tool that your brain only uses sometimes. For most people, really concrete words (objects, etc.) are easier to mentally image than abstract words (concepts, etc.) which may help explain what you're experiencing, too.
I have acquired aphantasia. It's changed the way I learn, create, and recall memories in a really alien way. I don't feel like myself at all.
This is all new to me just heard about it . I dont understand, i thought all human beings could visualize imagery or anything in their minds I do it all the time.
The weird thing for me is like I can know (kinda) what something looks like and my brain knows that but I can’t “see” it with any significant detail or really anything else. All I can do is think about how something looks. I never had a “breakthrough” where I learned people can see in their heads because I think I probably have partial aphantasia or smth. But for example I can’t translate what I know something looks like out of my head, like if I were to attempt to draw something. I usually forget 90% of the important things even though I know what something looks like.
Edit: the case with the guy near the end of the video is close to what I’m like, mine would be the congenital version though.
Researchers generally agree that there are different severity levels, but I'm not sure they'd call it "partial" aphantasia. I referred to mild aphantasia as dysphantasia in my dissertation, but that term hasn't really caught on either.
Good video, and the correct pronunciation of Aphantasia, well done.
Thank you! Glad you thought so.
Whenever i close my eyes i cant see anything. It’s just black. I can think of an apple but i wont even see its shape or color. Its just that i know what an apple looks like, but i cant see or imagine it? Is this also aphantasia? Like i just remember what my friends look like but if i close my eyes i cannot see their faces?
Sounds like aphantasia being described, yes
I didn't realize how much "dimmer" my mental pictures are than other people's until I started taking THC edibles. When I am high, strain-depending, my ability to picture things in my mind jumps by at least 300%-- normally, the images are faint to the point that I'm often not sure whether I'm seeing the image, or just being told it's there. This is particularly true with faces-- ordinarily, I can not picture someone's face (though I can recall, clearly, a photo of that same face), and when I'm high, it's like they're there.
I always wondered how people described things to a sketch artist because I could absolutely never and come to find out it’s because people can actually picture things?! I freaked when I found out people don’t have an internal monologue and I do and come to find out some people can picture photos?! I’d love to know if those who can picture images and those who have an internal monologue are or aren’t related.
I have a monologue but can only manifest images when I’m extremely tired and up until recently never chose what I saw (still can’t completely) recently I’ve been practicing on manifesting images I WANT to see and even then it took me weeks to get a bunny on command,then a house,dog,cat etc. mostly I just see floating images and almost always not pleasant:
As an artist without the ability to imagine. Just takes some writing talent
Excuse me. When you say you have an internal monologue are you saying you can think to yourself in your head or are you saying you literally hear a voice, like a sound? You hear the sound of someone speaking to you... but it's you?
@@curiaregis9479 that’s a tough one because do I “hear” my own voice with my ears,no but I do hear it in my mind. For instance I can hear a song in my head and the voices of the singers perfectly but it’s not as if my ears are hearing it,just my mind creating the sounds from memory. It’s super cool because I lived to years without a working car radio 🤣
@@leahminer4494 Yeah, I get songs stuck in my head, but I just know the song. It's like it runs along a track but I wouldn't call what I'm experiencing sound in any way, shape or form. It's like my aphantasia, I can "know" things but nothing in my mind resembles any shape or color, like a picture. There's just nothing. So I'm curious. You're not hearing with your ears but does it resemble sound?
@@curiaregis9479 that makes sense because I KNOW what a apple looks like but I could imagine it enough to see the image in my head or put it in paper,however to hear a song,I hear every voice I’m it’s own glory,every instrument in its own set. It’s as if the stereo were on beside me.
I Have aphantasia ans lately I have been really jealous of people with phantasia. I’ve always done really well in school and I was valedictorian but I always hated reading books because I found they were really boring I have found out that it’s because I cannot picture the story in my head. I was wondering if there was a way to acquire phantasia? Please answer
Several people have claimed to get better at mental imagery through two methods: practice, or psychedelic drugs. Personally, I've tried practicing my mental imagery -- by attempting to visualize shapes and colors just after waking up and just before bed when my brain's ready for some dreaming, and paying closer attention to opportunities to use mental imagery in day-to-day situations like navigating. I still suck at it, but I'm better than I was a few years ago. I haven't tried the psychedelics route!
then how do I know if I have?
Congenital Aphantasia was said to may have poor imagery
does mine count as one
for the first case: I can picture the sky, I can picture a cloud, pretty color sky blue and white clouds, a rainbow
I can imagine it with colors, with its proper colors like red, yellow, green, blue, purple
but if you asked me the colors or the order of it, I wouldnt be able to tell you unless I specifically concentrated the image; strictly, into the rainbow
like I know the colors are there when putting it as a general picture, yet somehow I cannot tell you what colors they are.
like when you do a "find the differences" you dont notice the differences until you strictly look for them
does that count as a poor imagery to be congenital aphantasia? or is it just my brain ignoring small details? like when your eyes follow a mosquito and suddenly it disappears from eyesight because your brain sees it's a small dot, so it decides to ignore it from the picture for being too small to consider visualization
for the second case: Whenever Im talking or even typing like right now, I dont imagine the actions of the words I mean, I do sometimes, not always the case, for the majority of the case as I talk or type I imagine the words I want to speak, like if I say "I want to eat an ice cream" I dont imagine the ice cream or me eating the ice cream or even just my lips syncing to the words I say
I just imagine, precisely that: "I want to eat ice cream" - the letters, the words, the sentence is what I think. I will imagine the Ice cream but I'd do that if I want to, rather than involuntarily
Thinking about this issue, many of my memories have photo snapshots as reference. If I think about riding horses as a kid, I can remember what the stable looked like, the horse, his saddle, the riding ring, my hard black English riding hat, etc., all stored as photos or mental videos as well as the sensation of riding, my feelings, etc.
I think I may have acquired apantasia , I suffered several head trauma's as a child, I see only black when I try to visualise something, only discovered this condition yesterday and can relate to so much of it, and now for the first time, I am beginning to understand why I think the way I do. very eye opening excuse the pun
It's a great pun! According to one big survey that was only half-published last I checked (Zeman et al., 2020) most people with aphantasia do not discover the condition until they are 20 years old or older -- so you are in good company!
@@ARTexplains I am literally asking everyone I know if they can visualise now haha, I have got this far without it, and don't miss what I never knew about.
I have aphantasia, ever since I learned about it periodically I get depressed and start lucid dreaming just to imagine because for some reason I can imagine when I'm dreaming... I will literally spend my lucid dream lying in my bed imagining trees or something... It feels so liberating to be able to imagine... I truly envy you people, I have a theory that I developed it instead of having it since birth because I broke my head when I was a kid falling backwards. It doesn't make much sense though because I remember when I was still a kid, just older, complaining to myself about how difficult it was to imagine something and not being able to imagine a face... Most likely I had a crappy imagination to begin with and simply lost the ability growing up. The first period I tried to imagine I would manage sometimes to almost give myself a seizure and imagine for a little while some random shit my brain was cooking up, it felt more like bending myself backwards to look at a screen where stuff was already playing though, I wouldn't really call it imagining, but it gave me an idea that people truly can see images in their head, it hasn't happened since though.
I’ve been having Aphantasia since I was a baby I never knew why
I can't picture the colors of a rainbow, but I know them.
it's weird like I can't picture a three-dimensional object but I know how many sides it has and I can draw it
Yeah people with aphantasia can draw pretty well, they often just form the image on the page instead of in their head
The only thing I can imagine is sound. Every other sense is gone completely
Me too. I can always hear songs and imagine my friends or family’s voice etc. But when i close my eyes its black, i can never see them, nothing
Interesting
I still don’t understand why this is a condition to be “diagnosed”. Like, take the example of writing and reading - does one HAVE TO visually imagine what they are reading or writing?
Why can’t this just be “here’s another way people process information”?
!!!
I didn’t realize that when people talked about imagining things that they literally see pictures in their mind! My mind was blown when I realized I was the weird one’ 😅😂
Blew my mind when i found this out as i thought i had brain damage for not being able to form images in my mind & when i was trying to do some counselling the mental exercises they asked me to do i faked it because they always started with "Imagine Blah in your mind etc.." which i just cant do, & these things made me way more aware of the fact, which caused me some stress, after watching this it appears i have partial Aphantasia as sometimes but not often an image albeit blury will pop into my mind usually after waking & not for long more like a dream residue, but i can never actually focus & manipulate any images in my mind & the harder i try the more i fail. Also i know i dream but am never able to recall what i am dreaming about unless it is very emotional as i will often wake with feelings but no actual memory as to why i am feeling a certain way.
Yeah I feel that -- I have very poor imagery. It might be due to damage to the brain but it might also just be the way that your brain developed! Brains are wild.
I feel like this is the reason why I'm more able to deal with boredom than a lot of people. I can sit and watch Jurassic Park in my head or rewrite star wars. I'll often go on autopilot and daydream something then realise I've just driven miles not seeing a thing. I obviously am still aware of my driving because I didn't crash... Its just very odd when it happens
Great example of mental imagery!
I experiance aphantasia. My brain is not broken. It is different from those who don't.
Yeah, I agree. The word broken refers to the acquired disorder, not developmental aphantasia. Having different mental imagery abilities from other people is normal. But in someone who HAD the ability and then LOST it, that's when something got broken. Do you see the difference there?
@@ARTexplains I see the difference but still object to the word. Lost or changed or another synonym would be preferable.
I hear what you're saying, but for the purposes of a title that communicates the set of topics clearly, there isn't a better word than break. Change isn't a synonym for break and would include more than the "acquired" conditions that I intend this series to include. Lost is a decent word but it doesn't include conditions where something is diminished rather than lost. Break/Broken is the word that I've chosen to use consistently with all of the acquired disorders that I discuss. As someone with poor mental imagery myself, I understand why the word might feel negative but it is not commentary on the person, but commentary on the situation.
When i tell you i was SHOOK when i found out people actually see things with their eyes closed🤯...I see NOTHING just straight ⚫️. I just rest in the feeling of things, I conceptualize an image but i don't actually see it. I dream pretty normal but meditation & things where you have to conjure an imagine in your mind? nah. I wish! I can feel the feeling of seeing it..if that makes sense😂 I'm very emotion/ other sensory based when 'visualizing'. Damn i'm kinda jealous of other people's brains🫠😂 I bet their meditations & visualizations Slapp!!✨️
Also, I don't have an inner monologue that people talk about having. Alot of the research I've done shows a link between that and aphantasia. I'm so curious how that works.. like people hear a voice in their mind 24/7?? Is it yourself or like disconnected from you? What's it talkin about?🤔😅 like i'm genuinely so curious! I have thoughts i think in my mind but i don't audibly hear them.. Alot of people I've asked say it can be annoying and very self critiquing even mean at times which sounds Awful😟😣honestly just the thought of it in general kinda freaks me out😬 like constant chatter all day everyday only you can hear? I'd go insane..both of these concepts really fascinate me to no end!!😌 the human mind is so complex! Quite interesting.. I could talk psychology & neuroscience all day💯
I can visualize things in my mind vividly, and when I often daydream the sounds of the things I’m thinking about auto fill in. Strangely though, whenever someone tells me to imagine something or I start actively thinking about how I’m doing it, I struggle to. Is there a reason for this?
I don't think I have aphantasia, but I have always struggled creatively. I can visualize an apple and rotate it with some effort. I can imagine what I look like dribbling a basketball between my legs. I create a mental image of characters in a book. But I don't actually see it in the same way that it feels like i see when I dream. When I am sleep deprived, I visualize more readily and, it can feel like I am not in control of them. Like the visuals are forming my inner monologue as opposed to my inner monologue forming the visuals.
I have Congenital Aphantasia. It's VERY frustrating, as it puts me at a disadvantage in a LOT of areas compared to others.
I can see the image really vivid but only like a fraction of a second almost like a frame does that have a name or something
I always had the ability to imagine but it’s not that detailed, or colorful. If you say imagine 3 spheres, I imagine a dark room with 3 pale spheres and that’s it. Most people would give great detail. I also am bad at picturing things like in books, which is why I usually watch movies rather than read books, so I can actually understand what’s going on.
Thanks for aquainting me with Aquired Aphantasia. That seems to finally fit.
You're welcome! Glad to hear that it fits!
So can you people just replay a hole movie in your brain? And visually see Luke and Ben Kenobi sitting in Ben’s home? Can I train my brain to develop This?
Yes....and anything else. I can move the characters around dress them anyway I want or undress them.
I don’t understand how people with this condition can survive. How do they plan, process, do simple arithmetic, read exciting books??
Do they have no inner monologue either?
I can imagine the idea of things I can’t actually see them. I don’t believe people ACTUALLY see the images in their head
That's common -- I wrote about that discrepancy in belief (people with/without aphantasia not believing one another) in the Introduction section of my Dissertation. While I can't necessarily convince you, I will say that the evidence definitely supports the existence of both people with mental images and people without mental images. They struggle to relate to one another, generally.
You can actually SEE the imagery. You wouldn't be sceptical at all if you'd experienced it just before you fall asleep, have taken drugs, or done prolonged sleep deprivation (these are the times when I've been able to do it literally). Outside of those times, I can do the ordinary imagine things and sort of see them (but they're not projected outwardly)....similar to when you're absorbed in a book.
I can't visualise images in my head but I can draw things that I have drawn many times before (from a photo or from life) without having the thing in front of me. For example if I draw a face or a horse I work from a starting point and build up the image. If it's something I haven't drawn before even though it's a familiar thing like a building that I see every day I wouldn't be able to to draw it or form any real mental image. Weird.
It’s really hard for me to understand how can you function without images in your head? I rely on my visual memory on everything!
That's a fantastic point -- there have been many arguments in the scientific literature over the years where researchers with GOOD mental imagery insist that everyone must experience it that way, while researchers with POOR mental imagery insist that everyone must experience it that way!! There was even a study that showed a correlation between the beliefs of the researchers and how 'good' their mental imagery was (I am blanking on the reference but I remember it was in the early 2000s and Kosslyn was an author but not the first author, lol)
I can't conceptualize how you can just pull up pictures of stuff in your head...I can bring something to mind as easily with my eyes open as shut. It is always all black when I close my eyes.
How do people with aphantasia remember things and elaborate thoughts? Like I only think with pictures, if I couldn't visualize the place I need to go to, I wouldn't visualize the street and therefore wouldn't be able to go.
Can’t imagine how people who can’t see images in their mind like
What do you all think when I say (let’s say he is someone you know ) John ?
As for me If someone says someone I know I will immediately imagine what they look like and also something related to what we’re talking about
Imagining faces is a good conversation topic to have between someone with aphantasia and someone without, because in many cases both people will have a hard time understanding/believing the other person. However, we know from a Neuro perspective that brains are capable of both experiences (imagining faces versus being unable to imagine faces)
For me, audiobooks give me the feeling of being able to imagine things because i can focus more on immersing myself instead of having to read the letters. Its hard to describe because its not actually seeing it but more like "feeling?" it.
I am currently writing an urban fantasy novel, but I seem to have some sort of aphantasia-I can't visualise locations, draw mental maps, nor rotate 3D (or even 2D) objects in my minds eye. I've always struggled with reading fiction because I can't see what the book is describing to me, I just process it as words. This also translates to struggles playing chess because I can't visualize the board, pieces, or planned lines of attack, despite practice or training. I've also struggled with more abstract forms of mathematics despite always having high marks in physics, I speculate for the same reason.
That being said, I don't see it as a disability, but rather, an alternate perception, and I have adjusted my writing style accordingly.
Interesting
this video has led some people by the looks of it to have self diagnosed themselves with this difference, yet a very important factor in my opinion is missed. If I shut my eyes, should I be able to conjure animage in front of me if I imagine it or should I be able to conjour an image/picture in my mind that I can 'see' despite the fact I cant manipulate the imageto see it in frony of me when my eyes are closed.
People see things in their mind?!?! Every time my teacher told my class to visualise everyone except me could actually see things, literally, I have a hard time imagining
Do you have aphantasia, or the opposite (hyperphantasia -- really good mental imagery)? Let me know in the comments!
Aphantasia
I was born with it
I found out at a young age and didn’t know why until now
SOME PEOPLE CAN ONLY LOOK-- THEY NEVER SEE.. THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL IS BLOCKED
Hi thank you so much for your vedio very informative.I now discovered that i have aphantasia syndrome im 46 now and i always see imagine things in my head for exanple if u see a trees sometimes i see an image 8n rhe tree like there was a face please help me i wanna cure myself
When I am mentally imagining something that turns I can’t stop it , like I can’t stop cycling.
I went through a deep depression then ever since then…I couldn’t see anything in my head
Were there medications involved?
Wild. I can build whole worlds. I have multiple worlds I visit in dreams too, places that are familiar because I've dreamed of them over decades...all imaginary dream worlds. When I wake up I remember areas and laugh at how it mirrors real life. Often I forget about these places until I dream about them again, and it's like I never left.
Aphantasia doesn't mean you don't have an imagination! It means you can't visualise with 'the minds eye'. You can still imagine but it's an entirely different way of imagining because you don't do it with the images. Saying someone can't imagine tho is like saying they can't have their own original thoughts and ideas which people with Aphantasia can still do, they just can't visualise those ideas.
Yep. And there's even evidence that there is more than one kind of mental imagery in the mind's eye with some information being visual and some being spatial--it seems that some people are able to do one type but not the other.
Sadly that's literally what it does mean - Zeman's team coined the term aphantasia, derived from the Ancient Greek word phantasia (φᾰντᾰσῐ́ᾱ), which means 'imagination', and the prefix a- (ᾰ̓-), which means 'without'.
AFAIK I have congenital aphantasia
the obvious problem with self-diagnosis is the nature of the tests
It's pretty much "can you picture X in your mind? 1-5"
repeated about 30 times
Yes, the tests need to be better!!
omg i have acquired aphantasia from when i fainted in school last year and hit my head, can you get rid of aphantasia in any way? :(
There's not a lot of evidence for getting rid of aphantasia, unfortunately. Some people claim that meditation and/or certain drugs can help, but I haven't seen much concrete proof of that.
@@ARTexplains thank you! it's very annoying to have it because i can't visualise things when I'm trying to draw, ect.
As someone without aphantasia, I can't imagine how someone else without it would be unsure of whether or not they have it.
It took less than a day to figure it out, I only see stuff in my dreams but I have congenital aphantasia. I think self diagnosing is ok I mean I know myself lol, no need to pay for testing.
I know what you mean. You know that you see things in your mind because you see them. If you don't know, you have aphantasia.
What's interesting for me, is how even though I can't see things in my mind, I can *hear* them. For example, when someone who does *not* have aphantasia, thinks of a waterfall, they can see it in their mind's eye. I don't see it, but I hear it. I hear the roar of the waterfall.
There was a Star Trek episode where one of he crew explains that he can’t see his father’s face. They came up with some Ferengi explanation but I wasn’t impressed. I never see anyone’s face in my mind anyway. I’ve had several appointments with my Doctor but there is usually a long initial delay before figuring out who exactly I’m talking too. At my age that's usually a bad sign. I lost my Mom in a crowd one time. It wasn't till she sneezed that I recognized her.
I have a vivid color rich emotionally charged imagination. That sounds great but there's *so* many times I've wished I couldn't. Reliving or imagining what happened is haunting at times. I'd imagine (haha) being born that way would be a case of not missing what you don't know. I'm a bit envious
I used to be able to visualize things. As a child I saw a program about brain surgery on tv. It scared me, and for weeks I kept seeing this brain when I shut my eyes. It suddenly stopped and I was never able to fully visualize again. I can vaguely visualize repetitive things. like what my house looks like, but If I randomly met someone in the street I would not be able to tell you what they looked like. I can still see in dreams. I wonder if it is a self defense mechanism in the brain, Ironically, afraid of seeing the brain I saw in my childhood.
I believe this kind of videos are making a lot of normal people think they have aphantasia.
Because they think they were supposed to ACTUALLY SEE an image painting when closing their eyes.
It is not like that.
You see black when close your eyes, but you can imagine something.
Realising I was aphantasic and others get to see stuff with their imagination caused me more grief than my autism diagnosis at 35.
I feel like I’ve missed out on so much
That's an interesting thought Nolan -- I hope that more research is done into what the advantages of aphantasia might be, because in theory, people with this condition might be better at processing language, for example. More research is needed, however!
So I can’t see numbers. I can’t see letters of the alphabet in my head either. Heaven forbid someone calls out a telephone number, or a price of an object! And unless I have paper and pen to write down the spelling of something dictated, it’s gone in an instant. But, I can recall incidents from when I was three years old. Is that aphantasia or should I just accept my deficit?🇨🇦
Its like a room im in but its very dark. I know where everything is, i know it's there. I just can't see it.
I could see images so clearly as a child. Now I see nothing in my mind. I never noticed when this happened, but I’m betting it was around the time I had brain surgery in ‘94.
I was in a coma 40 years ago due to meningitis and encephalitis. I dont see any colors or pictures but im an artist and i create vivid surreal images with no problem. It feels like there is a part of my brain where it happens but i cant see it in my minds eye. What is actually happening here?