It's so strange to hear aphantasia described as a disability. When I try to imagine the world of typical people, I feel like it would be a terrifying form of madness to not be able to just think about things without hallucinating.
I just found out about this two days ago and had to immediately ask friends if they could literally see pictures in their head. I always just thought imagination was "thinking of" something! It kind of threw my world upside down that people could see memories and relive them! Again, thought this was just something TV shows and movies did for story! Good and bad memories, even the worst of the worst... I know they happened to me but I never thought you were supposed to be able to re-see them! I just thought I was cold hearted!
Same here! Only after talking about it with other ppl i realized that imagining something is diffferent for everyone. And a lot of ppl can actually see a picture of what they imagine. Colours and details and all. Weird!
Well same thing happened with me Last week and world changed when one of my friend told me yes he can see things with closed eyes . Another thing is I am an artist hobbyist been doing drawing and other form of related art since childhood without having mental eye ...
I thought some people might not want to watch the whole thing so I decided to make a timeline, but you should watch the whole video anyways. 1:04: How Dr. Zeman discovered Aphantasia 3:25: What is Hyperphantasia? 6:00: How is the brain different with Aphantasia? 10:40: Is Aphantasia hereditary? 12:55: Am I less triggered to traumatic memories due to Aphantasia? 14:54: Impact on eye witness testimonies 17:38: How PTSD presents and how it could be treated? 19:26: Can it be caused by emotional trauma? 21:24: Have you researched anyone who've been able to regain visual imagination? 23:49: Are there medical conditions that make it more likely to have Aphantasia? 26:16: Can Aphants be hypnotized? 27:05: Connections between Aphantasia and SDAM 29:57: How prevalent is Aphantasia in ADHD and Autism? 32:44: Connections to early-onset Alzheimers and/or Dementia 34:08: Behavioral differences in Aphantasia or Hyperphantasia 39:11: Are there demographic differences in the prevalence in Aphantasia? 40:47: Has anything been done on gender or culture differences with Aphantasia? 43:40: How do we tell the difference between normal Phantasia and Hyperphantasia 46:25: Advantages/disadvantages of knowing you have Aphantasia 50:56: In Aphants is there activity in the visual cortex when presented with a visual cue? 55:58: Causes for lack of the other senses like touch, taste, and sound in the brain
Thanks, Roman, how thoughtful of you! We absolutely love our community, aphantasics, hyperphantasics, imagination enthusiasts, and researchers from around the globe reach out on a daily basis offering their support. Everyone says it, but we really believe it: this community is the BEST! Email us at hello@aphantasia.com with your mailing address, so we can send you a token of our gratitude! We are copying your timestamps to the description, as well as to our website (aphantasia.com/update-on-extreme-imagination/), and would like to give you credit. Let us know how you'd preferred to be mentioned (by name, YT handle, etc.). We look forward to connecting!
Thanks again, Roman! We know you simply shared these to help make the information more accessible for others, but this small act makes a big difference! Not just in accessibility, but it made a difference in all of our weeks here at Aphantasia Network! Everything we do is in the name of community, and community is built on service, kindness, and support, like you've displayed here. We hope you love the "I'm Aphantastic This Morning" mug that is on its way! twitter.com/_aphantasia/status/1394456581585182721?s=20
My son informed me of aphantasia in the fall of 2019. At the age of 62 this explained so much to me. I cried off and on for 2 weeks feeling like a weight had been lifted, and then again I would be so darn mad. I would LOVE to travel back in time and inform my Catholic school teachers (nuns) why I struggled so greatly with math and spelling. OVER and OVER one teacher's comments echoed in my thoughts. "Just close your eyes and see this math problem, then work it out" ME in 2019, I could NEVER EVER see ANY FREAKIN numbers in my mind !!!!!!!!! Then on to spelling. IF I could have visualized the words, maybe I would have been a better speller. I have been artistic all my life. I had to have a pencil and paper even from a young age. Maybe I did that because it was a way for me to recall things. I do know that I have a great difficulty in creating my watercolor art from my own imagination. I have to have a reference photo. I can only hope that today's teachers have some sort of training about aphantasia. Obviously children will learn in different ways.
I write this post in complete shock and with great delight. I'm 47, male and have as of this morning (4am) just found out that I'm not alone. In the past, whenever I explained to my family/friends that I cannot and have never been able to visualise memories/concepts or even my own wife and children. I've been seen as "rather odd"! I'm dyslexic (diagnosed in my 30's) so have always put this 'lack of' ability to being dyslexic. I can't tell you how over the moon I feel right now and I'm not alone or mad!!!
My husband (51) and I discovered the same about him a few short days ago! Someone described it as 'Liberating' and we cannot argue with that. To have found an entire community!!! He's quite euphoric TBH. We have embarked on the mission to quiz every human being we know (as so many have!).
As a child i allways asumed when people said: imagine yourself at a beach etc. And people went “ ah yess” that it was figuratively that people just acted like they saw stuff just like i did.
I have aphantasia syndrome. When you don't know about it, in general, nothing is ordinary. After I found out about aphantasia, I began to study my perception. And this is really interesting. To describe it very briefly, imagine that you memorize everything in a "text" form, and not in an "picture" form. For example, I do not remember a map, I remember the "description" of the map. For example, I remember: "3 houses, behind them there is a park, after that there is a pedestrian crossing and you got to the place." People without aphantasia use both the picture and its text description. People with aphantasia have a developed thinking work with a text description. It's funny to rewatch movies. I know the plot perfectly, down to the smallest detail (my brain remembers this way), and the picture does not "get bored")). I took part in a competition in which aphantasia helped me win a lot of prizes! The competition consisted in the fact that on a screenshot of a film, faces of main characters were covered with a sticker, and from the rest of the picture you need to guess what kind of film it was. Whoever guessed the first got the prize. I almost always got it. Even if you haven't seen the movie. A running man surrounded by journalists? Forrest Gump! I think that people without aphantasia need more time to analyze the "picture" and "semantic context". In people with aphantasia, the picture is almost ignored, and attention is only to context. And it happens very quickly. I was very fast and therefore I won. It is quite difficult to learn a foreign language with aphantasia... It is really difficult. But I try to learn English. Understanding that I have aphantasia helps in learning English and in study my perception. After leaving the my office, I cannot remember what my colleagues were wearing and what color their clothes were. The brain, as a searchlight, remembers (illuminates) only what it focuses on. To memorize this information, there must be a REASON for which my brain will remember this (and it will remember for a long time). I don't remember the color of my friends' eyes.)) etc.
I can relate so much to the map thing. I have terrible sense of direction and i get around because i learn the names of the streets and which order they’re in!
Да рил проблема. У меня знакомый такой же, он говорит что помнит людей, цвета, но не видит их тип в мысленно взоое, как я и остальные. Приём узнал он это именно тогда, когда его просили что-то представить
i also have aphantasia and totally agreewith ur map scenario. im the same way i also am terrrible with directions/signs on the highway but if ive been there once i could get back from similiar descriptions u used for the map like 3 houses and a park
I'm 51 years old and just found out that I cannot visualize anything. I am at a Zero too! I have had no trauma growing up either.My Mom, sister and brother cannot see it in their head either. MY daughter and son cannot either. I do not remember my dreams unless they are very scary. I can never see anything in my dreams, I just know that say my mom is next to me in the dream but cannot see anything. What is interesting is that I am good with spacial relations even though I cannot imagine it. I have never been creative at all. I cannot hear, taste or feel anything in my dreamsI Would LOVE to over come if, if possible. I find it very frustrating that I cannot visualize. I do practice everyday.
Much Thanks to you Dr. Zeman first of all for coining the term "Aphantasia" as this gives us people a starting point to express what we have from a scientific perspective. It goes beyond 'Thanks' as all works past, present, and future all stems from your initial investigations and that is quite and Honor you deserve. Thanks to you too Tommy as you provide a platform for us to keep informed.
Being honest, I'm horribly sad I suffer from aphantasia. I can't shake the feeling that I'm deficient or less than because of it and it sucks. I lost my wife 3 years ago and I can't see her in my minds eye. Only way I can see her again is with pictures, or sometimes in dreams. Those are the best.
I can't see my kid brother, I've tried to picture him over the years since he died, and there's nothing there, there never was. On the positive side, all the extended family who've died hardly affect me at all. I'm sad when it happens, but it's like a 2 out of 10, even for my grandparents, who I really liked. As explained here, I don't have the picture in my head to make me sad. I'm just finding this out a couple days ago, and that other thing SDAM, which I'm thinking I may have a strong case of, but I need to do more research to learn about it better.
@@shadow-wulfI can relate to some of what your saying. I loved my grandma so much and I want to see her, but I can't conjure up her image. Now, I have photos... and I CAN picture those photos. So weird. Even people that are alive. If I tell myself to think of them, I might see an image of them, but it fades the more I concentrate. Also, very weird.
Wowzers! Realizing that others could really see things in their minds eye blows my mind! 🤯 I've always just saw black and relyed on memory and feeling. I started crying when I realized it....blessing and a curse. Strange because I'm very creative and love art and creative things....but I do struggle with inspiration.
I relate so much with the description of hyperphantasia where he says sometimes you don't remember if you imagined something or actually did it! Sometimes I plan out events in my mind, and do them in my mind and then later forget if I did it just in my mind. I'll actually have to go check to see if I did it for real! My imagination is that vivid. There were so many countless school mornings where I would get ready in my mind while laying in bed and then realize I was still in bed and it sucked!
I have aphantasia and SDAM. My son has hyperfantasia. When I asked him about what he sees in his mind's eye when envisioning an apple he replied: "I can picture an apple, I can touch it, taste it, smell it, I can hear the slight hollow sound of tapping on it." So incredibly different than anything I have ever known!
Ah, same here! Along with missing that whole inner monologue thing too. My son is about to be 4 & I can't wait to find out what type of imagery he's capable of. His dad can visualize pretty clearly but mostly in black and white, while my close family (mom, dad, and younger brother) are all on the higher end of the scale w/ my mom being hyperfantasic. Honestly, we know so little about it right now that it could be anything. The research is just beginning!
That's really interesting as my husband is aphantasic and upon testing our 18yr old son, he scored really high too (almost all 9 & 10s), would be interesting to see if there is a correlation of opposite there too.
Advantage to "knowing" -- In school, the teacher says, "imagine a place and draw me a picture of what you see". So, 3% of the students will essentially not understand the assignment. I had a conversation with several school psychologists and none had heard of it. Teachers will just think the student is being difficult, and the student doesn't know what to do. I know many people who did terrible in some classes in school and realized much later that this is the reason. How many students get "disciplined" each year for not participating in an exercise that they literally cannot comprehend?
Yes.. or girls that supposed to be in another world and daydreaming?! I wasn't! I never have able to.. i disassociated a little bit in my teens but I was never in another world.. i was there in class not knowing what to do and what was going on.. because I didn't know what to do with the information given.. at least that is what I am suspecting. I have autism and sensory issues as well..
@@ymirfrostgiant i wld need an actual print to draw, "think of a place and draw it" would not be enough for my mind to work, but if you say "draw the post office" i could do that.
Very true i remember people saying visualize and think about this or that but all i saw was a dark vois with barley any color exept for after images of lights
This is probably 1 of the easy diagnostic to do so. Y is it not done on every child this is what keeps me awake at night know how much I struggled and I just needed teaching diffrant or someone to understand this
I'm 44 and have a 14 year old daughter. We both learned we have aphantasia recently, my wife has hyperphantasia. Within a few days of working with my daughter and trying to get her to visualize she was able to begin to visualize. I'm convinced this can be learned much easier at an early age and it's a tragedy that this is not taught in early education. How I went so long not understanding I had this huge difference in the experience of life is baffling to me.
I have total aphantasia (no senses in my mind) and I'm pretty darn sure I have SDAM. When I first heard about this a couple years ago it was like My Life Makes Sense! I would very much like to keep learning more and participate in studies. Some days I want a "cure" and some days I'm fine. The autobiographical memory is VERY frustrating and people don't believe me or understand. I would like an official diagnosis so I don't feel "crazy" that I don't remember my childhood.
I always try to spend time looking back. Like literally spending a good hour really thinking about old memories and trying to lock them in. I've been doing it subconsciously since I was a kid, because I overheard an adult say that you forget alot of stuff when you grow up, so I was scared of forgetting all the cool things I was discovering. Maybe dedicate some time to reminiscing and see if it works for you?
@@biancat7761 My brain doesn't store the memories. I can be talking to my sister and she'll tell me about something we used to do and I have zero recollection of it. None. I can't reminisce over things I have no memory about. It's not like the memory is fuzzy. I just can't remember my past. It's an ongoing lifelong disorder.
I’ve never even known anything but the darkness and I always assumed everyone else was the same. Sad really. When people say to visualize what you want in life, visualize your goals etc..maybe this is why I’m not great at both of those.
@@jip7971 I’m alone in every dream as well. There are people but I never recognize anyone. Used to be that my dog was my only companion in all my dreams but since cancer took him I never see him there. I miss him so much. It’s definitely a strange condition to have isn’t it?
@@AkChiVibes It sure is a strange condition to have! I found out 2 days ago and I am 51 yo. My dreams are some void in which I sometimes recognize people, but the imagery keeps changing and eventually fades into nothing. Sad to hear about your dog, I feel very sorry for you! I am grateful to have my 12,5 yo golden retriever still by my side. I am processing about my blind mind, because it explains a lot of things in my life. I think a good thing is, is that I have not only a blind but also very calm mind, probably because my mind has less distractions. Wish you all the best!
30:26 I have ADHD and I found out yesterday that I have aphantasia (I am 31 years old). Every time when I heard or read "just imagine how you would feel when you will reach your goal" I was like "it is impossible for me to imagine this" but I was thinking this entire time that it is just too difficult for me, that it is a case of low self esteem. Yesterday I was reading "The Hidden Springs" by Mark Solms and there was a story of a man who have a brain damage and Solms asked his patient to imagine two dogs and a chicken and tell how many legs he can see. So I tried to do this and I found out that I can't imagine something so simple in my mind, I was trying it for few minutes but all I got was black screen. But patient of Mark Solms was able to do it with damaged brain and was able to imagine that dog ate the chicken so there were 8 legs (instead 10). So after that I googled why my imagination doesn't work and I am here (I read few articles before I ended up here).
I recently found out I have this. My family has it as well. It's insane to me that people can just conjure up images in their mind. That said, I'm extremely creative. I'm a musician and am talented at graphic design. I feel that my "minds eye" closing has helped me open my "minds ear". I can create entire songs with many instruments and vocals in my head at once. I usually even do it while multitasking. I know the details of every instrument like dynamic changes, flutters, fluctuations and so on. If I hear a melody from somebody else, I almost instantly know what the rest of the song needs to be complete. There have been a few moments in my life when I'm working on some of my best songs, that I have had a visual element. It's hard to describe, but it's as if I step outside of myself and everything just flows out. Kind of like a meditative trance or that moment before you fall asleep? I often don't feel like I'm even writing the song. When it's flowing, I can imagine I'm in a different world, like watching a fantastic movie scene. Depending on the feeling of the song, the world could be in slow motion, night/dark, time reversing, strange color pallets and so on.
Do people with aphantasia have a higher intuitiveness? I feel like I do, maybe it's due to the fact based knowledge gathering vs visual or emotional gathering of knowledge.
I’d be interested to learn what areas of the brain are activated when one sketches or draws a picture, because that’s the closest I can equate to what I do, instinctively, when asked to imagine something. I remember the item as an experience, then start assigning spacial relationships to the shapes and colors, naming the colors and ratios, but all quickly and subconsciously. With all of those lists in memory, it’s no wonder things like names (which are not the *person*) drop off. The brain is doubly busy when pictures can’t be thrown up on the mind-screen.
As someone with hyperphantasia who basically lives in these imaginary places all the time, seeing things, listening to things... I'm absolutely astonished that people could have such a huge difference in the way we think and it to go unnoticed, or perhaps rarely noticed, for thousands of years. I wonder if it was ever noticed in ancient history and when this difference emerged.
Welllllll dang. This explains so much, including why my memories of my own life are so bad. (People can remember things that aren't from photographs? Wow!) I SOMETIMES have visual dreams. Like.... 3-6x a year. But awake, I can't visualize or recall sounds, smells, or anything. I'm great at recognizing faces and voices when I see or hear them. Crazy crazy. See? I knew I was special. Lol Edit to say: I feel like I'm quite in touch with my emotions... My memories are more about how I feel... When I think about books I've read, I can remember a list of plot points, but mostly I remember how it made me feel. I'm also able to reread books quite frequently (once every 6-12 months) because I "forget" a lot of the details.
Yes to the reading thing!! I love that I can reread my fav series over and over and have a new experience every time. Same with TV shows and movies. Also yeah, I get the feeling thing. The closest thing I have to what others would call a memory is just my feelings at a specific period of time. But I also have SDAM.. so episodic memories are an issue flat out lol
Discovering that I have aphantasia has answered many questions, and has explained alot of behavior I previously felt was odd or weird. As to why we can remember and reconstruct images without visual memory, I'd argue that's because we remember the key features, store them in conceptual icons which we then can map together in an abstract web of what makes up the description of the object. Rather than saving an image and reviewing it later, we create abstract mindmaps with hyperlinks. Perhaps the lack of visual imagery allows for another dimension of thought all together. When reconstructing an image based on memory I first have a very basic sketch so to say, of the object. Not visual, but conceptual. For example I save the four quarters of an image as 4 separate conceptual bubbles that store information about the visual information, but not any visual information itself. Idk, it's hard to explain how my mind works considering it's still blown wide open by the realization that people can imagine things in their head. Alot of my thinking happens seemingly in the dark. Monolog happens, but is mostly cut-off and discarded because the invisible thinking is faster than the translation of it into strings of words. That's why I also have trouble articulating myself
Neuroplasticity has the ability to rewire the brain and, I was wondering if neuroplasticity can stretch the brain enough to create visual images making the connection stronger with practice. If so what kind of exercises are you currently looking into? You know what they say neurons that fire together wire together.
I can build things in my head before I start a project, I couldn't imagine not experiencing this. I can visualize my messy garage and even mentally look for things before I even get there physically. I'm trying to imagine not having this ability and it's impossible.
Me too! I’m not going to write my story now as it’s long and I’m a bit drunk, but I do want to say one thing: people seem to be treating this like a disorder, but I don’t think that, I think that it is an Darwinian selected trait that only a minority need have for human evolutionary advantage. The advantages I experience I wouldn’t swap for the world, certainly not just to see movies in my head! Edit- Yay, he said it ‘I don’t really think of aphantasia as a disorder’ - apoplogies 🙂 Oh and thanks so much, this was amazing
Similar experiences to others, but one that I found interesting was actually while dreaming! I've tried a few times to lucid dream. In waking life, I'm perceptive and use my peripherals a lot, but when I'm dreaming I can't really see in the same way. A few times I've recognized this in my dream and tried to control my surroundings. Instead of changing to my whims, everything fades to nothingness and I just end up fully aware in what I basically assume is the inside of a black hole. Completely empty and dark but with an orange-green energy that can sort of be felt. It's not a great feeling and I've woken up immediately after each time. Now I know why this might be!
This is so useful to see. I remember thinking about the fact I couldn’t ‘see’ anything when I tried to imagine something when I was younger but was kind of brushed aside and then I kind of forgot about it until today. I’m based on Dartmoor. I’d love to take part in any research if you’re in Exeter
John from Germany. I found out that I have the condition Aphantasia last year when I explained to my wife that I think in Sentences. She Googled and found the Term Aphantasia. Since then and to date, it has been an extremely interesting experience getting to know myself better at the age of 79. My optimistic life to date has been very active and creative. My first inkling came when my eldest son described the function of the Cerebellum? and said that I shared none of the reactions that an alligator would have - 1.disinterest, 2. strange,threatening - aggression or flight, and 3.extreme interest - chomp. My discussion with him was logical, ethical, moral, reasoned etc and alligators (+ 98% of the population) don‘t react to that. I would love to have a zoom chat on this fascinating subject.
I didn’t know my inability to clearly remember past events was something that had been identified! I have friends who remember much more of my childhood than I do. I also have aphantasia. Freaking cool
It's always enlightening to discover more about ourselves. Many people are surprised when they learn there's a name for SDAM and aphantasia. Thanks for joining the conversation!
I and my brother just found d out we have this unique ability. We believe it is trauma induced. I say I see the "ESSENCE" of things. But not the tangible thing. It's like when watching a TV show and they have that little bubble that pops up of the person's thoughts or dream. This is what we see just all black. We know it's there. We just don't see it we KNOW it so if we know the essence we can tell you everything as if we were seeing it for real.
When there is a large study into this I would absolutely love to be involved in the study somehow. I actually attribute my ability to understand my own aphantasia to my own aphantasia. I feel that there may be people further on this "spectrum" than me that are misdiagnosed with other diseases that could actually be treated with mental training once it is understood better.
That's right. It's quite a wide spectrum across senses! Some people can't visualize but can hear things vividly. Some people are a mix of senses, with some more dominant. Others can't imagine any senses at all. If you're interested, we're working on a discovery platform that helps identify where you are across senses, provides personalized reports, and as we discover more about the impacts synthesizes all the new science in one place. Check out imaginaitonspectrum.com
I’m so surprised to know that there’s actually a term for this ….I used to keep asking people whether they can see the Color red or an apple if they closed their eyes coz I never could …I’ve tried a 1000 times but absolutely impossible ….but then I would love to tell you that due to this inability to see things in the minds eye , I ended up having a strange supernatural experience and I don’t believe in religion etc so maybe there’s a connection that I needed to understand which is becoming clearer now due to this video …cheers and thank you
I’m curious are you willing to share your experience? I also had a crazy supernatural experience. Also I know when God is talking to me because it’s the only time I do picture things in my mind and it’s usually when I’m falling asleep.
@@questioneverything9464 That's a totally different process called hypnagogic hallucinations and it's separate from the visuals others see when they don't have aphantasia. I have total aphantasia and I have seen slight outlines before falling asleep but I have to be very very very tired and try very hard. Unfortunately it doesn't mean I can visualize in waking life, nor can I recount a smell or any other senses :(
@@crystalglass33 Interesting. Like you said I sometimes will see black and white patterns or lines when falling asleep, just before I’m completely asleep. But when I pray about something or ask God a question sometimes I get images regarding the question. For example I asked him what puppy I should get out of this litter my friend had and just before I fell asleep I got a clear image of my dog with her very long tongue hanging out of her mouth. So I picked the dog I saw and sure enough she has a very long tongue. ❤️
I honestly think the minds eye and inner monologue is connected to the soul. Perhaps the world we live in is designed to oppress our souls and become numb spiritually. Do people with aphantasia believe in the soul, or in God? My ex had aphantasia and couldn’t understand or accept that the soul exists. I felt sad for him, it’s like he was disconnected spiritually.
I've always been bad at remembering how faces and objects look. I can sometimes recall a fleeting, low-resolution image, but I can't keep it in my mind and see the detail.
I don't have any images, sounds, tastes or smells in my mind. When I do have inner monolog I tend to distort my face alot to convey an emotion when thinking verbally. Also I'm using the muscles that I'd normally use for speaking. It's like i have to mimic the physiological mechanism for speaking in order to upkeep my inner monolog (not completely, but a little bit). Very fascinating. Changes in mimic or facial expression can, but don't always have to, interrupt the monolog. Also the monolog itself is interrupted and stopped alot because it can't keep up with the actual processing and understanding of information within my mind. So sometimes it's too clunky and gets canceled because I already figured things out even though I'm only halfway through formulating the thought process verbally. Making it completely redundant and optional for me to ever really use it tbh. When I'm very high on weed and tired at the same time I can sometimes visualize things in my head a little bit. I can do so alot better but still not vividly when I've taken mdma and weed at the same time. Thought this might help with your research.
If this adds anything, i have hyperphantasia . I actually have such a vivid and overly active imagination that it interferes with my ability to focus on a given task, i actually have serious trouble keeping my mind honed into a problem or point of focus because of it's proclivity to rocket off and start imagining different situations, and images. I couldn't do well in a classroom because i would spend 95% of my time day dreaming of other worlds and hypothetical situations. I can superimpose very easy though, i can build whole schematics and draw out logic trees with images, but i CANNOT stop my mind from wondering and spasming off into wonderland, it's made school very very difficult for me, particularly math .
I think these "disorders" are being mischaracterized. Aphantasia isn't a lack of imagination just like DID isn't Multiple Personality Disorder and boderline personality disorder isn't actually a personality disorder. I have Aphantasia and I can visualize other worlds and hypothetical situations...anything that's a scenario. But individual images or creating an image...not there. Can't "see" things in my head unless it's a memory or a scenario/story/situation. I also have Autobiographical Memory and can log what I see with my eyes as videos. This comes with full senses and emotions present at the time. But, cannot visualize anything singular of "creation". Cannot draw out of my head (however can draw anything from reference), or work problems in my head by visualizing....none of that part exists. It's just blank, and if I try to force an image there, as it builds it disappears yet the hard data comes forward to my mind in text form. Again, not that I'm visualizing the text...it's just like data/coding, I don't see it, I just instantly know it.
@@mrrooster4876 if you can visualize anything at all then you aren't aphantasic, you just have poor mental imagery. Aphantasia is the inability to EVER visualize in the minds eye, including memories.
@@mrrooster4876 dude you cannot have aphantasia and “visualize other worlds and hypothetical situations”. That’s VISUALIZATION. The definition of aphantasia is lack an ability to visualize. You are literally directly contradicting yourself and posts like yours are why there’s so much confusion in the community over what aphantasia really is, because ppl like you who can’t visualize perfectly all the time call yourselves aphantasic and that leads others to think, ‘Oh, I can’t see a perfect picture in my head like I’m seeing it with my eyes. Must be aphantasia!” Or the better, “Can’t see pictures behind my eyelids, must be aphantasia!” I dislike misinfo and your comment was laden with it. Like recording shit with you eyes to rewatch later?? An aphant could NEVER. I can’t even conceive of how something like that would work, and as a total aphant w/o an inner monologue I think my anecdote holds more weight than an “aphant” who can visualize concepts, stories, scenarios, and memories. Massive eye roll dude. 🙄
It's very big problem I think. My mom have aphantasia and she in life watched two things only. Its so sad problem. Need more discover this problem. Dr. Zeman, thank you! ❣️
I just learned this was a thing, I have never been able to create images in my mind other then when dreaming or on psychedelic drugs. I am and artist and a machinenst when I "imagine" its almost like building a stack of verbal memories and creating a rough draft of memory cues in the mind. The wife and I where talking about visualizing the way we were going to do the house, then I started telling a friend and he told me the name for it aphantasia earlier today (im 30)
I just discovered that I have Aphantasia and I am scared. I literally asked my whole family and bf and they can see things I literally can’t. I cried but then I realise that is why I am so different. I am dyslexic too with signs of ADHD. So maybe that correlates with it. I am just so confused.
Hey Nayx, thank you for sharing. We hear from many aphants who feel similarly upon the discovery of aphantasia. Seeing pictures isn't all upside. Most visualizers see pictures they don't choose to see. Mental imagery can also be a double-edge sword. We don't mean to tell you that you should feel good about it. Just that there are two sides to the story, and that realization can help significantly.
Has anyone with aphantasia learned to visualize? I always visualized, for an example: math estimations. However my brain only cared for the result, so I had no memory of the visualization. When i started meditating I started paying more attention, and realized this was happening in my subconscious.
Ah, PTSD with aphantasia. It's reliving the feelings that I experienced at the time, never images or episodic memories. I believe I've had it my whole life, total aphantasia + lack of an inner monologue. However, I also have basically no autobiographical memory at all so I have no clue if at some point I was once able to visualize in some capacity. Let me say, it was hellish going through the drug rebab system multiple times, with all included therapy (fuckin CBT & aphantasia do NOT work together) without knowing why nothing was ever clicking. I'd gotten clean by the time I learned about aphantasia, and just thinking about how much time was wasted trying to force me to picture my 'happy place' makes me wanna shout into a pillow. But yeah, the ADHD correlation I can corroborate along with SDAM. The whole shebang of mental fuckery.
muito bom o vídeo. parabéns aos envolvidos. tenho aphantasia total (som, cheiro, imagem, sentimentos, paladar, etc). Acho eu que me enquadro no SDAM e no Autismo, mas, existem outras maneiras de ter SDAM e autismo.
I don’t think any one suggested we can’t, just that there may be some protection from PTSD because we don’t have any imagery to accompany the memory of the traumatic events. And that often, but not always, people with Aphantasia have poor autobiographical memory. I have terrible autobiographical memory but for the traumatic events of my life I certainly recall those in greater detail (unfortunately) than pleasant or even GREAT memories/moments. But again those memories are not visual memories, which I definitely feel adds some protection
I'm not been unrealistic but Dr. Zemen says it will be a mistake to assume you can't do art. I find this hard to believe because how can you draw something you cant visualize or imagine? I am definitely the worst artist.
I found out I had this about a year ago. Only started looking into it very recently. This really explains so much about what I dealt with growing up. I'm a decent artist and now wonder how much different my skill would have been if I actually could visualize. It really clears a lot of things up that art teachers would say to me.
I also have ptsd. It doesn't bother me one bit UNTIL I see a visual trigger that reminds me. It only lasts a few minutes but it's an intense wave. After it passes it was like it never happened, I go right back to what I was doing.
I allways got confused when art teachers would say things like “ imagine this “ and people did. I just asumed we all acted like we saw things. Because thats what i did.
Late to the party... Great interview with such valuable information! I found this because I was searching for why I can't see anything in my mind's eye. It's just a sort of 'knowing' that a memory or object exists. I'm a 44yr female, who is aphantasic and also color 'weak', mostly brown and green. I'm curious about a connection there as well? I also have a variety of other issues that were discussed in the video.
I have Aphantasia, both of parents have it and my siblings have it too. I’m very good at recognizing faces though. I feel I have acquired Aphantasia as a coping mechanism. I remember at least 3 instances when I got sick after watching scary movie when I was a child and that tells me that I may have been able to visualize as a child.
My dad had aphantasia. I knew i did from about the age of 7. He and mum were talking about how she saw things in her mind so vividly and Dad said he didn't see anything. I didn't either. We used to talk about it a lot even though we had no name for it. It never bothered us. I'm 70 now. When my dad got dementia he couldn't remember anything from his past at all. I have often wondered if it was anything to do with this.
I dream visually, sometimes very visually to where I can mistake them with reality. But when making a mental image (while awake) I find it hard to control the images. They move and change on their own. I can see them- their color, shape, what they are, but I find it hard to control the pictures and make them into what I want unless I'm in a relaxed state. Like when I'm laying in bed or in a waiting room- then I can create scenarios in my head how I want them. Maybe this has to do with my mild OCD? I occasionally struggle with intrusive thoughts so perhaps this is the reason?
I wonder if there is a correlation between the brains of people that have hyper-visualization and end of life patients that “see” people in the room as if they are right there, this happens frequently in people shortly before death. Could there be a change in the brain shortly before death that ties in with this?
Thank you for posting.. Maybe next time add a UA-cam logo on you announcement? didn't know it was on UA-cam.. but glad it is. This was very informative! I have aphantasia and autism.. and just in general having problems with (just learned) conceptualizing information.. which is probably the reason I didn't get the cue that it was here and not on Instagram.
I know some things about myself when I take on a task its 100% almost addictive personality and I am not as sensitive or emotional as others . I can only read books that are factual as anything that requires using my mind is just words . I am sure I've had this my whole life but didn't know what it was.
I have Aphantasia with no sense imagination aside from a feeling of a single location in a void, a sense of 3 dimensional space i geuss. im able to move this location point around but its relative only to itself so it almost feels like i can draw an artifact like an etch a sketch thats always erasing. just wondering if anyone else has this kind of experience? i also have mild autism. no one else in my immediate family has Aphantasia. but its nice to find the void gang to spend our time in lovely darkness together :) i look forward to more content.
Full Inner Monologue. Can't visualize singular objects, images or faces. Can draw anything I see, but can't draw a thing out of my head. I can however visualize when reading or writing a story, but it's not an image it's a video of the scenario. I also have Autobiographical Memory and remember literally everything I see as a logged video. They even come equipped with the emotions and senses that were there live. However, I cannot pause the video or grab any images out of the video, I can only play the video. I can put it on loop. However this visualization only comes in video form and in memories or stories. Anything singular doesn't exist it's just blank. No images. I can't visualize maps or directions. It's all text or context. However, tell me landmarks and they're in context I'll find my way. In fact I usually only have to go somewhere once and the entire route is mapped in my head for life, but not visually like one would think, routes seem to automatically get converted into hard data.
Hello. My name is Michi and I have Aphantasia. I do have vivid dreams. My minds eye is blind but my minds voice never mutes. I wish it would STFU for 5 minutes.
Hello, I have a different expérience about loosing someone, I can't get it so easily as some people with aphantasia report. I feel really depressed and the fact that I can't imagine the person's face, can't remember souvenirs without being only straight facts and not something like a video type of thing makes me feel empty, very empty because i know there is someone missing, and there is nothing but unanimated picture on my phone. And i can't get over it, still thinking about it for a while..
Frankly Im not a fan of the name 'aphantasia' since it sound more like theres no fantasy, not no imagery. Its too late know, but what words we choose is super important, and that one implies the wrong thing. As I wrote on another video, I liken aphantasia to not having a monitor hooked up to an otherwise working computer. It has memory, processing, even 'output' of graphics, but nothing goes to the screen. Obviously this is just a simple analogy, but Ive been finding folks can imagine what that is like.
I just went to your 'quiz' that was advertised at 45:00 and some change. There's a bunch of questions, and literally all of the answers are: do you got it, or not? Be better.
I never heard of this before. I have been thinking about it. If people can just close their eyes and see and hear things why watch TV or listen to music? I am not sure I believe this. If there are these people it is wonderful for them. I could "imagine" a place and come up with a drawing since any place would do that I could draw. I do not understand how you can know any of this. Brain scans could be interpreted many ways. Lots of people claim lots of things and believe them too. I just cannot "imagine" this.
So I have full visual and auditory aphantasia from birth (as far as I can tell) but the benefit of protection against prolonged traumatic reactions totally skipped me 😢
According to the New York Times, only 0.7% of people have aphantasia. I feel like all these people are flipping out thinking they should see clear visions as if their eyes were open. That's not how it works.
As someone with CPTSD, and Aphantasia I have been doing with EMDR in a modified way with my doctor and it does help. I find I have more emotional flash backs, where the feelings are intense but are not accompanied by an image or exact memory. I don't know if this is related to Aphantasia or not. Also my mother and one sibling also have Aphantasia but also trauma form a young age.
I think the name Aphantasia is totally misleading for that kind of "condition", it should be rather an Avisualization. Because there is no shortage of fantasy for sure I can witness..
The one consistent thing about SDAM and aphantasia seems to be that everyone experiences them differently. This difference is in part genuinely because of the way we experience our inner world and partly because of a divergence of opinion about what these conditions actually cover. In particular, some people who claim to have a good memory say they have SDAM because they don't have first-person memories. To me - who doesn't even have 5 memories of childhood to rub together - the "first person viewpoint" is a red herring. When you have almost no memories, you don't have any perspective on the few episodes that you remember - and you don't really remember them as episodes anyway. The handicap I experience is the almost complete lack of memory - not the lack of first-person perspective. A lack of first-person perspective is indeed a feature of the way I remember things, in the same way that the lack of a steering wheel is a characteristic of a horse. But it is - by far - not nearly as big a feature of my memory as my blurry, indistinct, limited, non-moving-picture recall of tiny disjointed fragments of events that might not have happened. I have no perspective at all. Not first-person, for sure, but not third-person either. None. No perspective. Just a vague knowing that something took place in my life. Two research teams are working on aphantasia (one in Sidney and the other in Exeter). No one is doing any research on the lived experience of people who deal, throughout the day, all day and every day, with the condition of SDAM and its effect on their own lives and relationships, and on the lives of others. The only research on SDAM is on its neurology and neurophysiology - because that's what the single research team (which is in Toronto) happens to be interested in. You can tell from the first paper written on SDAM, the one that gives the definition, that the team are interested in the neurology of the condition, but not the psychology, not what it means to the person with the deficient memory, and not how that person experiences it, nor how they understand the world. The natural history of SDAM is, in short, unknown. It's frustrating. It's like having scientists working on the digestive functions of an organism while its ecology and behaviour remain un-researched. I don't say that the team in Toronto is at fault in any way - their training is in the neural correlates of memory, not on the psychology of deficient memory. But it is sad for those of us who live without a memory of our past lives that nobody else is interested in finding out more about what we experience. This all means that those of us with the condition have no scientific guidelines or understanding to help us in our discussions as we try to make sense of our relationship with our own past.
My mother can visualize extremely well, as can my siblings and daughter. My father and myself cannot, and I appear to have multi sensory aphantia, while he doesn’t
At the bottom of this article, Evaluating the Mind's Eye (aphantasia.com/vviq-aphantasia-test/), you can sign up for ongoing research! There currently are a couple studies in the pipeline.
@@AphantasiaNetwork Hi, thanks for this interview I have here something for Prof. Adam Zeman as he may develop a simple test using the "internal counting" method by Richard Feynman. If you could pass it along, it may be useful. Thanx ua-cam.com/video/Cj4y0EUlU-Y/v-deo.html
Myself and my daughter have it. I thought I was just not that smart but she is gifted and in all advanced classes so I just don't know. We both love art but can really only draw and paint with a reference. I always wanted to make original art from my mind like music or a painting but cant😞
Sometimes when I visualise something it feels way more real than anything in the real wolrd. For example - when I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia, my brain visualised things so vividly / it felt extremely real, my brain was no longer seeing words on a page (even though that's what it was doing) but it was like I was actually in that place Lewis was describing, cold air, green grass and all. ☺️ Sometimes, when I listen to certain songs, my brain start playing clips in there and they feel quite real, and it's like I'm there, like watching a movie I'm actually in; sometimes it does this out of nowhere, like watching a short movie without knowing it's about to happen and the world just falls away. Occasionally, I imagine being in a place, flying or something, and at some point my brain no longer allows me to leave, I try imagining myself leaving that place but it just won't let it happen, it essentially traps me there, to the point where I have to open my eyes to break free.
It's descriptions like these that make me fell like I am missing out due to having aphantasia. I can dream and I can be quite creative but for most of my life when people talked about immersion I thought they meant "to be really focused on a thing due to enjoyment". I wish I could read a book and feel like I am literally there. I wish I could recall my two dead cats and listen to their meows and chirps once more when I am feeling down. Like I remember things but I cannot just conjure them up or hear them in my mind ya know? Luckily I have dreams which can somehow be quite visual, auditory and touchy. Never been able to smell or taste anything in dreams tho. Me being able to dream has begun to feel weird tho cuz in a lot of places I've read people that have a similar degree of aphantasia as me cannot dream in picture and stuff like that. I remember as a child having vivid dreams and I still sometimes do. Had sleep paralysis where I hear things, see things, etc. Sometimes when I've had paralysis I am able to change what I hear even. Like if I think of a song it starts playing in my ears with static. Probably because it was failed lucid dreaming attempts. I really wanna try some form of psychedelic to see if they have any visual effects on me but lol tbh I am not sure when I'll get around to doing that haha But yeah for as long as I've had memory I've never been able to visualize anything while awake when asked to "picture" or imagine something. No picture, no audio, no touch, no smell, etc. It is wonderful how the brain can be so different tho and I do not feel as bad about having it as I probably sound. Yeah I feel bad I cannot do stuff like you've mentioned but I have lived into my 20s without knowing and done fine just like other people. Plus theoretically it has some benefits. We probably are less likely to suffer from PTSD and stuff like that. But yeah it does not bother me so much. If some form of "cure" ever came to be I personally would take it but I know that is probably toxic thinking from living in the world we live in. Plus it'll probably be a far future dilemma. We still have so many unknowns when it comes to the mind a "cure" is definitely not going to be a consideration in my lifetime.
I think it is MORE a problem of DEALING with REALITY! The first words of "Lucy in the sky with diamonds"; "Picture yourself in a boat on a river" John can OBVIOUSLY "picture" the scene so maybe he had hyperphantasia???
I have Aphantasia, ADHD and Dyslexia. I don't see this as a disorder or handicap, I have a natural ability to think in the abstract. Also doesn't seem to run in my family but I wonder whether it is learned rather than passed on. If the purpose of the brain is to control our systems and allow us to better predict and navigate survival, there is usually more than one way to solve a problem. I think this is just the brain doing that in a less normative way. Perhaps trauma can prompt some people to process information through aphantasia as a more effective/safer way to navigate the world without the downside of flashbacks? It could be that a lack of attention or a different way of learning might result in a different way of processing information in the backend. To me it seems more efficient to process external stimuli in the abstract and then process all information in the same format. We loose the quality of our external senses as we age, I wonder if aphantasia could protect against degenerative disorders as memories are stored without connection to these areas. I wish I had known about this while I was studying, it might have been the topic to keep me in academia.
If any one can get ahold of this Dr I would love to know his opinion on people with schizophrenia, who had it come onset late or all their life, have any similarities between the two. I hope the treatment may also be able to be understood better in that aspect if fellow strong minds could look into it.
I’ve done the tests, and am part of the network. Both my sons have Aphantasia, but my daughter does not. Today, I was talking to my sister, and we discovered she has it too. I was stunned! What research has been done about Aphantasia being genetic? I have not asked my Brothers, one was a sculptor and a graphic designer as a profession. I am so interested in discovering more about this. I only found out about this a few months ago. My Aphantasia is a solid 0. Blank. No colours or images. At all.
Stay tuned, the research has moved at an incredible pace in a short time and is accelerating, thanks to widespread public fascination of extreme imagination! Just this year, the first PhD in Mental Imagery graduated, and many researchers are entering the space. It is only a matter of time before the research is undertaken!
How about Aphantasia and those of us who’ve been through CVD19? I am 7 months out, and still smell and taste is limited. Idk if that’s why my brain has been so negatively effected, but, I feel I’ve lost 30 IQ points. 😢
I just found out I have this. And I still can't believe people can see images in their mind. I've asked everyone I know nd I've only found one other person who can't. It's so weird. As a kid my dad would try to help me draw like him and he'd tell me just picture it and the draw and I never could I'd get so mad thinking there was something wrong with me. But I thought my dad saying picture it was just a figure of speech. I don't dream the only dreams I've had and the person I found is the same way is like really really bad dreams and it's only like once or twice a year. I've never day dreamed. But I am really good at remembering words and actions.
What about visualizing with the eyes open? I cannot see anything with the eyes closed but I have a better idea (abstract transparent image) when I try to “visualize” with my eyes open
I believe that's the standard or 'normal' way people visualize. Being able to see things on the back of your eyelids is more of a hyperfantasic/higher end of the scale type of thing.
It's so strange to hear aphantasia described as a disability. When I try to imagine the world of typical people, I feel like it would be a terrifying form of madness to not be able to just think about things without hallucinating.
I just found out about this two days ago and had to immediately ask friends if they could literally see pictures in their head. I always just thought imagination was "thinking of" something! It kind of threw my world upside down that people could see memories and relive them! Again, thought this was just something TV shows and movies did for story! Good and bad memories, even the worst of the worst... I know they happened to me but I never thought you were supposed to be able to re-see them! I just thought I was cold hearted!
I can’t see anything either!
Same here! Only after talking about it with other ppl i realized that imagining something is diffferent for everyone. And a lot of ppl can actually see a picture of what they imagine. Colours and details and all. Weird!
Well same thing happened with me Last week and world changed when one of my friend told me yes he can see things with closed eyes .
Another thing is I am an artist hobbyist been doing drawing and other form of related art since childhood without having mental eye ...
Yes. My mom is like you
Same
Artist here with self-diagnosed Aphantasia. “Perfectly imaginative “ 👍
I thought some people might not want to watch the whole thing so I decided to make a timeline, but you should watch the whole video anyways.
1:04: How Dr. Zeman discovered Aphantasia
3:25: What is Hyperphantasia?
6:00: How is the brain different with Aphantasia?
10:40: Is Aphantasia hereditary?
12:55: Am I less triggered to traumatic memories due to Aphantasia?
14:54: Impact on eye witness testimonies
17:38: How PTSD presents and how it could be treated?
19:26: Can it be caused by emotional trauma?
21:24: Have you researched anyone who've been able to regain visual imagination?
23:49: Are there medical conditions that make it more likely to have Aphantasia?
26:16: Can Aphants be hypnotized?
27:05: Connections between Aphantasia and SDAM
29:57: How prevalent is Aphantasia in ADHD and Autism?
32:44: Connections to early-onset Alzheimers and/or Dementia
34:08: Behavioral differences in Aphantasia or Hyperphantasia
39:11: Are there demographic differences in the prevalence in Aphantasia?
40:47: Has anything been done on gender or culture differences with Aphantasia?
43:40: How do we tell the difference between normal Phantasia and Hyperphantasia
46:25: Advantages/disadvantages of knowing you have Aphantasia
50:56: In Aphants is there activity in the visual cortex when presented with a visual cue?
55:58: Causes for lack of the other senses like touch, taste, and sound in the brain
Thanks, Roman, how thoughtful of you! We absolutely love our community, aphantasics, hyperphantasics, imagination enthusiasts, and researchers from around the globe reach out on a daily basis offering their support. Everyone says it, but we really believe it: this community is the BEST!
Email us at hello@aphantasia.com with your mailing address, so we can send you a token of our gratitude! We are copying your timestamps to the description, as well as to our website (aphantasia.com/update-on-extreme-imagination/), and would like to give you credit. Let us know how you'd preferred to be mentioned (by name, YT handle, etc.). We look forward to connecting!
Thanks again, Roman!
We know you simply shared these to help make the information more accessible for others, but this small act makes a big difference! Not just in accessibility, but it made a difference in all of our weeks here at Aphantasia Network! Everything we do is in the name of community, and community is built on service, kindness, and support, like you've displayed here. We hope you love the "I'm Aphantastic This Morning" mug that is on its way!
twitter.com/_aphantasia/status/1394456581585182721?s=20
@@AphantasiaNetwork thanks, I really like and appreciate the mug
Thank you
My son informed me of aphantasia in the fall of 2019. At the age of 62 this explained so much to me. I cried off and on for 2 weeks feeling like a weight had been lifted, and then again I would be so darn mad.
I would LOVE to travel back in time and inform my Catholic school teachers (nuns) why I struggled so greatly with math and spelling. OVER and OVER one teacher's comments echoed in my thoughts. "Just close your eyes and see this math problem, then work it out" ME in 2019, I could NEVER EVER see ANY FREAKIN numbers in my mind !!!!!!!!! Then on to spelling. IF I could have visualized the words, maybe I would have been a better speller. I have been artistic all my life. I had to have a pencil and paper even from a young age. Maybe I did that because it was a way for me to recall things.
I do know that I have a great difficulty in creating my watercolor art from my own imagination. I have to have a reference photo.
I can only hope that today's teachers have some sort of training about aphantasia.
Obviously children will learn in different ways.
I write this post in complete shock and with great delight. I'm 47, male and have as of this morning (4am) just found out that I'm not alone.
In the past, whenever I explained to my family/friends that I cannot and have never been able to visualise memories/concepts or even my own wife and children. I've been seen as "rather odd"!
I'm dyslexic (diagnosed in my 30's) so have always put this 'lack of' ability to being dyslexic.
I can't tell you how over the moon I feel right now and I'm not alone or mad!!!
My husband (51) and I discovered the same about him a few short days ago! Someone described it as 'Liberating' and we cannot argue with that. To have found an entire community!!! He's quite euphoric TBH.
We have embarked on the mission to quiz every human being we know (as so many have!).
As a child i allways asumed when people said: imagine yourself at a beach etc. And people went “ ah yess” that it was figuratively that people just acted like they saw stuff just like i did.
Same @@Djordymans
I have aphantasia syndrome. When you don't know about it, in general, nothing is ordinary. After I found out about aphantasia, I began to study my perception. And this is really interesting. To describe it very briefly, imagine that you memorize everything in a "text" form, and not in an "picture" form. For example, I do not remember a map, I remember the "description" of the map. For example, I remember: "3 houses, behind them there is a park, after that there is a pedestrian crossing and you got to the place." People without aphantasia use both the picture and its text description. People with aphantasia have a developed thinking work with a text description.
It's funny to rewatch movies. I know the plot perfectly, down to the smallest detail (my brain remembers this way), and the picture does not "get bored")). I took part in a competition in which aphantasia helped me win a lot of prizes! The competition consisted in the fact that on a screenshot of a film, faces of main characters were covered with a sticker, and from the rest of the picture you need to guess what kind of film it was. Whoever guessed the first got the prize. I almost always got it. Even if you haven't seen the movie. A running man surrounded by journalists? Forrest Gump! I think that people without aphantasia need more time to analyze the "picture" and "semantic context". In people with aphantasia, the picture is almost ignored, and attention is only to context. And it happens very quickly. I was very fast and therefore I won.
It is quite difficult to learn a foreign language with aphantasia... It is really difficult. But I try to learn English. Understanding that I have aphantasia helps in learning English and in study my perception.
After leaving the my office, I cannot remember what my colleagues were wearing and what color their clothes were. The brain, as a searchlight, remembers (illuminates) only what it focuses on. To memorize this information, there must be a REASON for which my brain will remember this (and it will remember for a long time).
I don't remember the color of my friends' eyes.)) etc.
Show
Fantastic thanks for sharing, j krishnamurti had aphantasia and his perception about the way we create are own suffering is spot on 🙏
I can relate so much to the map thing. I have terrible sense of direction and i get around because i learn the names of the streets and which order they’re in!
Да рил проблема. У меня знакомый такой же, он говорит что помнит людей, цвета, но не видит их тип в мысленно взоое, как я и остальные. Приём узнал он это именно тогда, когда его просили что-то представить
i also have aphantasia and totally agreewith ur map scenario. im the same way i also am terrrible with directions/signs on the highway but if ive been there once i could get back from similiar descriptions u used for the map like 3 houses and a park
I'm 51 years old and just found out that I cannot visualize anything. I am at a Zero too! I have had no trauma growing up either.My Mom, sister and brother cannot see it in their head either. MY daughter and son cannot either.
I do not remember my dreams unless they are very scary. I can never see anything in my dreams, I just know that say my mom is next to me in the dream but cannot see anything. What is interesting is that I am good with spacial relations even though I cannot imagine it. I have never been creative at all. I cannot hear, taste or feel anything in my dreamsI Would LOVE to over come if, if possible. I find it very frustrating that I cannot visualize. I do practice everyday.
Much Thanks to you Dr. Zeman first of all for coining the term "Aphantasia" as this gives us people a starting point to express what we have from a scientific perspective. It goes beyond 'Thanks' as all works past, present, and future all stems from your initial investigations and that is quite and Honor you deserve. Thanks to you too Tommy as you provide a platform for us to keep informed.
Being honest, I'm horribly sad I suffer from aphantasia. I can't shake the feeling that I'm deficient or less than because of it and it sucks. I lost my wife 3 years ago and I can't see her in my minds eye. Only way I can see her again is with pictures, or sometimes in dreams. Those are the best.
Sending my love to you mate 💖 keep your head up - it's hard to see your own advantages, but im sure us aphantasiacs have plenty 😁
I can't see my kid brother, I've tried to picture him over the years since he died, and there's nothing there, there never was.
On the positive side, all the extended family who've died hardly affect me at all. I'm sad when it happens, but it's like a 2 out of 10, even for my grandparents, who I really liked. As explained here, I don't have the picture in my head to make me sad.
I'm just finding this out a couple days ago, and that other thing SDAM, which I'm thinking I may have a strong case of, but I need to do more research to learn about it better.
@@shadow-wulfI can relate to some of what your saying.
I loved my grandma so much and I want to see her, but I can't conjure up her image. Now, I have photos... and I CAN picture those photos. So weird.
Even people that are alive. If I tell myself to think of them, I might see an image of them, but it fades the more I concentrate.
Also, very weird.
Wowzers! Realizing that others could really see things in their minds eye blows my mind! 🤯 I've always just saw black and relyed on memory and feeling. I started crying when I realized it....blessing and a curse. Strange because I'm very creative and love art and creative things....but I do struggle with inspiration.
I relate so much with the description of hyperphantasia where he says sometimes you don't remember if you imagined something or actually did it! Sometimes I plan out events in my mind, and do them in my mind and then later forget if I did it just in my mind. I'll actually have to go check to see if I did it for real! My imagination is that vivid. There were so many countless school mornings where I would get ready in my mind while laying in bed and then realize I was still in bed and it sucked!
I have aphantasia and SDAM. My son has hyperfantasia. When I asked him about what he sees in his mind's eye when envisioning an apple he replied: "I can picture an apple, I can touch it, taste it, smell it, I can hear the slight hollow sound of tapping on it." So incredibly different than anything I have ever known!
Ah, same here! Along with missing that whole inner monologue thing too. My son is about to be 4 & I can't wait to find out what type of imagery he's capable of. His dad can visualize pretty clearly but mostly in black and white, while my close family (mom, dad, and younger brother) are all on the higher end of the scale w/ my mom being hyperfantasic. Honestly, we know so little about it right now that it could be anything. The research is just beginning!
That's really interesting as my husband is aphantasic and upon testing our 18yr old son, he scored really high too (almost all 9 & 10s),
would be interesting to see if there is a correlation of opposite there too.
Advantage to "knowing" -- In school, the teacher says, "imagine a place and draw me a picture of what you see". So, 3% of the students will essentially not understand the assignment. I had a conversation with several school psychologists and none had heard of it. Teachers will just think the student is being difficult, and the student doesn't know what to do. I know many people who did terrible in some classes in school and realized much later that this is the reason.
How many students get "disciplined" each year for not participating in an exercise that they literally cannot comprehend?
Yes.. or girls that supposed to be in another world and daydreaming?! I wasn't! I never have able to.. i disassociated a little bit in my teens but I was never in another world.. i was there in class not knowing what to do and what was going on.. because I didn't know what to do with the information given.. at least that is what I am suspecting. I have autism and sensory issues as well..
This is really interesting for me. If the teacher had said "think of a place and draw it", would that be any easier?
@@ymirfrostgiant i wld need an actual print to draw, "think of a place and draw it" would not be enough for my mind to work, but if you say "draw the post office" i could do that.
Very true i remember people saying visualize and think about this or that but all i saw was a dark vois with barley any color exept for after images of lights
This is probably 1 of the easy diagnostic to do so. Y is it not done on every child this is what keeps me awake at night know how much I struggled and I just needed teaching diffrant or someone to understand this
For me, memories are so intense and vivid they can give me panic attacks if I remember a bad memory.
I'm 44 and have a 14 year old daughter. We both learned we have aphantasia recently, my wife has hyperphantasia. Within a few days of working with my daughter and trying to get her to visualize she was able to begin to visualize. I'm convinced this can be learned much easier at an early age and it's a tragedy that this is not taught in early education. How I went so long not understanding I had this huge difference in the experience of life is baffling to me.
I have total aphantasia (no senses in my mind) and I'm pretty darn sure I have SDAM. When I first heard about this a couple years ago it was like My Life Makes Sense! I would very much like to keep learning more and participate in studies. Some days I want a "cure" and some days I'm fine. The autobiographical memory is VERY frustrating and people don't believe me or understand. I would like an official diagnosis so I don't feel "crazy" that I don't remember my childhood.
Same here
Same here!
What’s SDAM?
I always try to spend time looking back. Like literally spending a good hour really thinking about old memories and trying to lock them in. I've been doing it subconsciously since I was a kid, because I overheard an adult say that you forget alot of stuff when you grow up, so I was scared of forgetting all the cool things I was discovering.
Maybe dedicate some time to reminiscing and see if it works for you?
@@biancat7761 My brain doesn't store the memories. I can be talking to my sister and she'll tell me about something we used to do and I have zero recollection of it. None. I can't reminisce over things I have no memory about. It's not like the memory is fuzzy. I just can't remember my past. It's an ongoing lifelong disorder.
I’ve never even known anything but the darkness and I always assumed everyone else was the same. Sad really. When people say to visualize what you want in life, visualize your goals etc..maybe this is why I’m not great at both of those.
The same crossed my mind, never had any clear goals like others seem to have
@@jip7971 I’m alone in every dream as well. There are people but I never recognize anyone. Used to be that my dog was my only companion in all my dreams but since cancer took him I never see him there. I miss him so much. It’s definitely a strange condition to have isn’t it?
@@AkChiVibes It sure is a strange condition to have! I found out 2 days ago and I am 51 yo. My dreams are some void in which I sometimes recognize people, but the imagery keeps changing and eventually fades into nothing.
Sad to hear about your dog, I feel very sorry for you! I am grateful to have my 12,5 yo golden retriever still by my side.
I am processing about my blind mind, because it explains a lot of things in my life. I think a good thing is, is that I have not only a blind but also very calm mind, probably because my mind has less distractions.
Wish you all the best!
30:26 I have ADHD and I found out yesterday that I have aphantasia (I am 31 years old).
Every time when I heard or read "just imagine how you would feel when you will reach your goal" I was like "it is impossible for me to imagine this" but I was thinking this entire time that it is just too difficult for me, that it is a case of low self esteem. Yesterday I was reading "The Hidden Springs" by Mark Solms and there was a story of a man who have a brain damage and Solms asked his patient to imagine two dogs and a chicken and tell how many legs he can see. So I tried to do this and I found out that I can't imagine something so simple in my mind, I was trying it for few minutes but all I got was black screen. But patient of Mark Solms was able to do it with damaged brain and was able to imagine that dog ate the chicken so there were 8 legs (instead 10). So after that I googled why my imagination doesn't work and I am here (I read few articles before I ended up here).
Nice work DR.Zeman. Thanks]
I recently found out I have this. My family has it as well. It's insane to me that people can just conjure up images in their mind. That said, I'm extremely creative. I'm a musician and am talented at graphic design. I feel that my "minds eye" closing has helped me open my "minds ear". I can create entire songs with many instruments and vocals in my head at once. I usually even do it while multitasking. I know the details of every instrument like dynamic changes, flutters, fluctuations and so on. If I hear a melody from somebody else, I almost instantly know what the rest of the song needs to be complete. There have been a few moments in my life when I'm working on some of my best songs, that I have had a visual element. It's hard to describe, but it's as if I step outside of myself and everything just flows out. Kind of like a meditative trance or that moment before you fall asleep? I often don't feel like I'm even writing the song. When it's flowing, I can imagine I'm in a different world, like watching a fantastic movie scene. Depending on the feeling of the song, the world could be in slow motion, night/dark, time reversing, strange color pallets and so on.
Do people with aphantasia have a higher intuitiveness? I feel like I do, maybe it's due to the fact based knowledge gathering vs visual or emotional gathering of knowledge.
I’d be interested to learn what areas of the brain are activated when one sketches or draws a picture, because that’s the closest I can equate to what I do, instinctively, when asked to imagine something. I remember the item as an experience, then start assigning spacial relationships to the shapes and colors, naming the colors and ratios, but all quickly and subconsciously. With all of those lists in memory, it’s no wonder things like names (which are not the *person*) drop off. The brain is doubly busy when pictures can’t be thrown up on the mind-screen.
As someone with hyperphantasia who basically lives in these imaginary places all the time, seeing things, listening to things... I'm absolutely astonished that people could have such a huge difference in the way we think and it to go unnoticed, or perhaps rarely noticed, for thousands of years. I wonder if it was ever noticed in ancient history and when this difference emerged.
Thanks for this fascinating question!
Thanks Roman Christie for the timestamps. This is real a study that will benefit many people.
Welllllll dang. This explains so much, including why my memories of my own life are so bad. (People can remember things that aren't from photographs? Wow!)
I SOMETIMES have visual dreams. Like.... 3-6x a year. But awake, I can't visualize or recall sounds, smells, or anything. I'm great at recognizing faces and voices when I see or hear them. Crazy crazy. See? I knew I was special. Lol
Edit to say: I feel like I'm quite in touch with my emotions... My memories are more about how I feel... When I think about books I've read, I can remember a list of plot points, but mostly I remember how it made me feel. I'm also able to reread books quite frequently (once every 6-12 months) because I "forget" a lot of the details.
Yes to the reading thing!! I love that I can reread my fav series over and over and have a new experience every time. Same with TV shows and movies. Also yeah, I get the feeling thing. The closest thing I have to what others would call a memory is just my feelings at a specific period of time. But I also have SDAM.. so episodic memories are an issue flat out lol
This explination is a great one. It is not a disorder, but just a different type of mental processing.
Man this helps a lot. Glad to be able to make sense of it. I thought I was just weird or lacked imagination.
I do GCSE art and have aphantasia. For me, art is a way of turning the conceptual imagination in my head into something visual so I can see it.
Thanks a lot M. Zeman, and thanks for posting this video.
Discovering that I have aphantasia has answered many questions, and has explained alot of behavior I previously felt was odd or weird.
As to why we can remember and reconstruct images without visual memory, I'd argue that's because we remember the key features, store them in conceptual icons which we then can map together in an abstract web of what makes up the description of the object. Rather than saving an image and reviewing it later, we create abstract mindmaps with hyperlinks. Perhaps the lack of visual imagery allows for another dimension of thought all together.
When reconstructing an image based on memory I first have a very basic sketch so to say, of the object. Not visual, but conceptual. For example I save the four quarters of an image as 4 separate conceptual bubbles that store information about the visual information, but not any visual information itself. Idk, it's hard to explain how my mind works considering it's still blown wide open by the realization that people can imagine things in their head.
Alot of my thinking happens seemingly in the dark. Monolog happens, but is mostly cut-off and discarded because the invisible thinking is faster than the translation of it into strings of words. That's why I also have trouble articulating myself
Neuroplasticity has the ability to rewire the brain and, I was wondering if neuroplasticity can stretch the brain enough to create visual images making the connection stronger with practice. If so what kind of exercises are you currently looking into? You know what they say neurons that fire together wire together.
I can build things in my head before I start a project, I couldn't imagine not experiencing this. I can visualize my messy garage and even mentally look for things before I even get there physically. I'm trying to imagine not having this ability and it's impossible.
You got cheat codes enabled bro
I wish 😅
Thank you Dr Zeman!
Me too!
I’m not going to write my story now as it’s long and I’m a bit drunk, but I do want to say one thing: people seem to be treating this like a disorder, but I don’t think that, I think that it is an Darwinian selected trait that only a minority need have for human evolutionary advantage. The advantages I experience I wouldn’t swap for the world, certainly not just to see movies in my head!
Edit-
Yay, he said it ‘I don’t really think of aphantasia as a disorder’ - apoplogies 🙂
Oh and thanks so much, this was amazing
I agree, I don’t see it as a disorder. I think we are lucky based on what I hear goes on in people’s minds 24/7. I’m glad mine is quiet.
@@Lindsey_Burrow totally agree, The most happiest people have the ability to quiet their minds and having aphantasia must help 😊
Similar experiences to others, but one that I found interesting was actually while dreaming! I've tried a few times to lucid dream. In waking life, I'm perceptive and use my peripherals a lot, but when I'm dreaming I can't really see in the same way. A few times I've recognized this in my dream and tried to control my surroundings. Instead of changing to my whims, everything fades to nothingness and I just end up fully aware in what I basically assume is the inside of a black hole. Completely empty and dark but with an orange-green energy that can sort of be felt. It's not a great feeling and I've woken up immediately after each time. Now I know why this might be!
This is so useful to see. I remember thinking about the fact I couldn’t ‘see’ anything when I tried to imagine something when I was younger but was kind of brushed aside and then I kind of forgot about it until today. I’m based on Dartmoor. I’d love to take part in any research if you’re in Exeter
John from Germany. I found out that I have the condition Aphantasia last year when I explained to my wife that I think in Sentences. She Googled and found the Term Aphantasia. Since then and to date, it has been an extremely interesting experience getting to know myself better at the age of 79. My optimistic life to date has been very active and creative. My first inkling came when my eldest son described the function of the Cerebellum? and said that I shared none of the reactions that an alligator would have - 1.disinterest, 2. strange,threatening - aggression or flight, and 3.extreme interest - chomp. My discussion with him was logical, ethical, moral, reasoned etc and alligators (+ 98% of the population) don‘t react to that. I would love to have a zoom chat on this fascinating subject.
I didn’t know my inability to clearly remember past events was something that had been identified! I have friends who remember much more of my childhood than I do. I also have aphantasia. Freaking cool
It's always enlightening to discover more about ourselves. Many people are surprised when they learn there's a name for SDAM and aphantasia. Thanks for joining the conversation!
I GOT THE COMBINED ADHD AND APHANTASIA, AND ON THE REDDIT SITES, THERES LOTS WITH BOTH.
I and my brother just found d out we have this unique ability. We believe it is trauma induced.
I say I see the "ESSENCE" of things. But not the tangible thing.
It's like when watching a TV show and they have that little bubble that pops up of the person's thoughts or dream. This is what we see just all black. We know it's there. We just don't see it we KNOW it so if we know the essence we can tell you everything as if we were seeing it for real.
When there is a large study into this I would absolutely love to be involved in the study somehow. I actually attribute my ability to understand my own aphantasia to my own aphantasia. I feel that there may be people further on this "spectrum" than me that are misdiagnosed with other diseases that could actually be treated with mental training once it is understood better.
Found out yesterday that I have this from another video. So interesting and explains things.
I knew about aphantasia but I didn't know that people could imagine taste, touch, sound, and smell. I definitely can't do any of those either.
That's right. It's quite a wide spectrum across senses! Some people can't visualize but can hear things vividly. Some people are a mix of senses, with some more dominant. Others can't imagine any senses at all. If you're interested, we're working on a discovery platform that helps identify where you are across senses, provides personalized reports, and as we discover more about the impacts synthesizes all the new science in one place. Check out imaginaitonspectrum.com
@@AphantasiaNetwork that's awesome! Yes, I'd definitely like to take part in it.
I’m so surprised to know that there’s actually a term for this ….I used to keep asking people whether they can see the Color red or an apple if they closed their eyes coz I never could …I’ve tried a 1000 times but absolutely impossible ….but then I would love to tell you that due to this inability to see things in the minds eye , I ended up having a strange supernatural experience and I don’t believe in religion etc so maybe there’s a connection that I needed to understand which is becoming clearer now due to this video …cheers and thank you
I’m curious are you willing to share your experience? I also had a crazy supernatural experience. Also I know when God is talking to me because it’s the only time I do picture things in my mind and it’s usually when I’m falling asleep.
@@questioneverything9464 That's a totally different process called hypnagogic hallucinations and it's separate from the visuals others see when they don't have aphantasia. I have total aphantasia and I have seen slight outlines before falling asleep but I have to be very very very tired and try very hard. Unfortunately it doesn't mean I can visualize in waking life, nor can I recount a smell or any other senses :(
@@crystalglass33 Interesting. Like you said I sometimes will see black and white patterns or lines when falling asleep, just before I’m completely asleep. But when I pray about something or ask God a question sometimes I get images regarding the question. For example I asked him what puppy I should get out of this litter my friend had and just before I fell asleep I got a clear image of my dog with her very long tongue hanging out of her mouth. So I picked the dog I saw and sure enough she has a very long tongue. ❤️
I honestly think the minds eye and inner monologue is connected to the soul. Perhaps the world we live in is designed to oppress our souls and become numb spiritually. Do people with aphantasia believe in the soul, or in God? My ex had aphantasia and couldn’t understand or accept that the soul exists. I felt sad for him, it’s like he was disconnected spiritually.
I've always been bad at remembering how faces and objects look. I can sometimes recall a fleeting, low-resolution image, but I can't keep it in my mind and see the detail.
I feel very SORRY for people that cannot "see" with their mind's "eye".
I don't have any images, sounds, tastes or smells in my mind. When I do have inner monolog I tend to distort my face alot to convey an emotion when thinking verbally. Also I'm using the muscles that I'd normally use for speaking. It's like i have to mimic the physiological mechanism for speaking in order to upkeep my inner monolog (not completely, but a little bit). Very fascinating. Changes in mimic or facial expression can, but don't always have to, interrupt the monolog. Also the monolog itself is interrupted and stopped alot because it can't keep up with the actual processing and understanding of information within my mind. So sometimes it's too clunky and gets canceled because I already figured things out even though I'm only halfway through formulating the thought process verbally. Making it completely redundant and optional for me to ever really use it tbh.
When I'm very high on weed and tired at the same time I can sometimes visualize things in my head a little bit. I can do so alot better but still not vividly when I've taken mdma and weed at the same time. Thought this might help with your research.
Fascinating stuff, thank you Tom and Professor Zeman!
If this adds anything, i have hyperphantasia .
I actually have such a vivid and overly active imagination that it interferes with my ability to focus on a given task, i actually have serious trouble keeping my mind honed into a problem or point of focus because of it's proclivity to rocket off and start imagining different situations, and images.
I couldn't do well in a classroom because i would spend 95% of my time day dreaming of other worlds and hypothetical situations.
I can superimpose very easy though, i can build whole schematics and draw out logic trees with images, but i CANNOT stop my mind from wondering and spasming off into wonderland, it's made school very very difficult for me, particularly math .
I think these "disorders" are being mischaracterized. Aphantasia isn't a lack of imagination just like DID isn't Multiple Personality Disorder and boderline personality disorder isn't actually a personality disorder. I have Aphantasia and I can visualize other worlds and hypothetical situations...anything that's a scenario. But individual images or creating an image...not there. Can't "see" things in my head unless it's a memory or a scenario/story/situation. I also have Autobiographical Memory and can log what I see with my eyes as videos. This comes with full senses and emotions present at the time. But, cannot visualize anything singular of "creation". Cannot draw out of my head (however can draw anything from reference), or work problems in my head by visualizing....none of that part exists. It's just blank, and if I try to force an image there, as it builds it disappears yet the hard data comes forward to my mind in text form. Again, not that I'm visualizing the text...it's just like data/coding, I don't see it, I just instantly know it.
@@mrrooster4876 if you can visualize anything at all then you aren't aphantasic, you just have poor mental imagery. Aphantasia is the inability to EVER visualize in the minds eye, including memories.
@@brookemakesstuff Yeah, that's not true
@@mrrooster4876 dude you cannot have aphantasia and “visualize other worlds and hypothetical situations”. That’s VISUALIZATION. The definition of aphantasia is lack an ability to visualize. You are literally directly contradicting yourself and posts like yours are why there’s so much confusion in the community over what aphantasia really is, because ppl like you who can’t visualize perfectly all the time call yourselves aphantasic and that leads others to think,
‘Oh, I can’t see a perfect picture in my head like I’m seeing it with my eyes. Must be aphantasia!”
Or the better,
“Can’t see pictures behind my eyelids, must be aphantasia!”
I dislike misinfo and your comment was laden with it. Like recording shit with you eyes to rewatch later?? An aphant could NEVER. I can’t even conceive of how something like that would work, and as a total aphant w/o an inner monologue I think my anecdote holds more weight than an “aphant” who can visualize concepts, stories, scenarios, and memories.
Massive eye roll dude. 🙄
@@brookemakesstuff When they only come from memory, yes you can...seen a neurologist about this recently...
It's very big problem I think. My mom have aphantasia and she in life watched two things only. Its so sad problem. Need more discover this problem. Dr. Zeman, thank you! ❣️
I just learned this was a thing, I have never been able to create images in my mind other then when dreaming or on psychedelic drugs. I am and artist and a machinenst when I "imagine" its almost like building a stack of verbal memories and creating a rough draft of memory cues in the mind. The wife and I where talking about visualizing the way we were going to do the house, then I started telling a friend and he told me the name for it aphantasia earlier today (im 30)
Does anyone else have aphantasia and also no inner voice? Just curious if they often coincide or if I've just been cursed two-fold 😬
Do people with Aphantasia have an easier time meditating?
I just discovered that I have Aphantasia and I am scared. I literally asked my whole family and bf and they can see things I literally can’t. I cried but then I realise that is why I am so different. I am dyslexic too with signs of ADHD. So maybe that correlates with it. I am just so confused.
Hey Nayx, thank you for sharing. We hear from many aphants who feel similarly upon the discovery of aphantasia.
Seeing pictures isn't all upside. Most visualizers see pictures they don't choose to see. Mental imagery can also be a double-edge sword.
We don't mean to tell you that you should feel good about it. Just that there are two sides to the story, and that realization can help significantly.
@@AphantasiaNetwork thank you so much. I have joined the network and I am learning more things everyday. Thank you so much for this network. Xx
the 10 min videos already makes me cry, buckle uppp
How can I be involved in studies for this? I absolutely have this, and I'm very interested in talking about my experience and thoughts.
Thank you for making this video! It was very informative and interesting!
Has anyone with aphantasia learned to visualize?
I always visualized, for an example: math estimations. However my brain only cared for the result, so I had no memory of the visualization. When i started meditating I started paying more attention, and realized this was happening in my subconscious.
Ah, PTSD with aphantasia. It's reliving the feelings that I experienced at the time, never images or episodic memories. I believe I've had it my whole life, total aphantasia + lack of an inner monologue. However, I also have basically no autobiographical memory at all so I have no clue if at some point I was once able to visualize in some capacity. Let me say, it was hellish going through the drug rebab system multiple times, with all included therapy (fuckin CBT & aphantasia do NOT work together) without knowing why nothing was ever clicking. I'd gotten clean by the time I learned about aphantasia, and just thinking about how much time was wasted trying to force me to picture my 'happy place' makes me wanna shout into a pillow. But yeah, the ADHD correlation I can corroborate along with SDAM. The whole shebang of mental fuckery.
muito bom o vídeo. parabéns aos envolvidos. tenho aphantasia total (som, cheiro, imagem, sentimentos, paladar, etc). Acho eu que me enquadro no SDAM e no Autismo, mas, existem outras maneiras de ter SDAM e autismo.
I can remember very traumatic events from my family and I have aphantasia
I don’t think any one suggested we can’t, just that there may be some protection from PTSD because we don’t have any imagery to accompany the memory of the traumatic events. And that often, but not always, people with Aphantasia have poor autobiographical memory. I have terrible autobiographical memory but for the traumatic events of my life I certainly recall those in greater detail (unfortunately) than pleasant or even GREAT memories/moments. But again those memories are not visual memories, which I definitely feel adds some protection
I'm not been unrealistic but Dr. Zemen says it will be a mistake to assume you can't do art. I find this hard to believe because how can you draw something you cant visualize or imagine? I am definitely the worst artist.
I found out I had this about a year ago. Only started looking into it very recently. This really explains so much about what I dealt with growing up. I'm a decent artist and now wonder how much different my skill would have been if I actually could visualize. It really clears a lot of things up that art teachers would say to me.
I also have ptsd. It doesn't bother me one bit UNTIL I see a visual trigger that reminds me. It only lasts a few minutes but it's an intense wave. After it passes it was like it never happened, I go right back to what I was doing.
I allways got confused when art teachers would say things like “ imagine this “ and people did. I just asumed we all acted like we saw things. Because thats what i did.
Late to the party... Great interview with such valuable information! I found this because I was searching for why I can't see anything in my mind's eye. It's just a sort of 'knowing' that a memory or object exists. I'm a 44yr female, who is aphantasic and also color 'weak', mostly brown and green. I'm curious about a connection there as well? I also have a variety of other issues that were discussed in the video.
I have Aphantasia, both of parents have it and my siblings have it too. I’m very good at recognizing faces though. I feel I have acquired Aphantasia as a coping mechanism. I remember at least 3 instances when I got sick after watching scary movie when I was a child and that tells me that I may have been able to visualize as a child.
My dad had aphantasia. I knew i did from about the age of 7. He and mum were talking about how she saw things in her mind so vividly and Dad said he didn't see anything. I didn't either. We used to talk about it a lot even though we had no name for it. It never bothered us. I'm 70 now.
When my dad got dementia he couldn't remember anything from his past at all. I have often wondered if it was anything to do with this.
I dream visually, sometimes very visually to where I can mistake them with reality. But when making a mental image (while awake) I find it hard to control the images. They move and change on their own. I can see them- their color, shape, what they are, but I find it hard to control the pictures and make them into what I want unless I'm in a relaxed state. Like when I'm laying in bed or in a waiting room- then I can create scenarios in my head how I want them. Maybe this has to do with my mild OCD? I occasionally struggle with intrusive thoughts so perhaps this is the reason?
I wonder if there is a correlation between the brains of people that have hyper-visualization and end of life patients that “see” people in the room as if they are right there, this happens frequently in people shortly before death. Could there be a change in the brain shortly before death that ties in with this?
Thank you for posting.. Maybe next time add a UA-cam logo on you announcement? didn't know it was on UA-cam.. but glad it is. This was very informative! I have aphantasia and autism.. and just in general having problems with (just learned) conceptualizing information.. which is probably the reason I didn't get the cue that it was here and not on Instagram.
I can think of stuff but I can't visualise anything and I don't dream , I've tried meditation and hypnosis and I see black in my head .
I know some things about myself when I take on a task its 100% almost addictive personality and I am not as sensitive or emotional as others . I can only read books that are factual as anything that requires using my mind is just words . I am sure I've had this my whole life but didn't know what it was.
I have Aphantasia with no sense imagination aside from a feeling of a single location in a void, a sense of 3 dimensional space i geuss. im able to move this location point around but its relative only to itself so it almost feels like i can draw an artifact like an etch a sketch thats always erasing. just wondering if anyone else has this kind of experience?
i also have mild autism.
no one else in my immediate family has Aphantasia.
but its nice to find the void gang to spend our time in lovely darkness together :)
i look forward to more content.
i have a very similar experience to what you're describing!
Before seeing this video, I wonder if the imagining of music will come up. My brain is constantly writing songs I can “hear”.
Full Inner Monologue. Can't visualize singular objects, images or faces. Can draw anything I see, but can't draw a thing out of my head. I can however visualize when reading or writing a story, but it's not an image it's a video of the scenario. I also have Autobiographical Memory and remember literally everything I see as a logged video. They even come equipped with the emotions and senses that were there live. However, I cannot pause the video or grab any images out of the video, I can only play the video. I can put it on loop. However this visualization only comes in video form and in memories or stories. Anything singular doesn't exist it's just blank. No images. I can't visualize maps or directions. It's all text or context. However, tell me landmarks and they're in context I'll find my way. In fact I usually only have to go somewhere once and the entire route is mapped in my head for life, but not visually like one would think, routes seem to automatically get converted into hard data.
Hello. My name is Michi and I have Aphantasia.
I do have vivid dreams.
My minds eye is blind but my minds voice never mutes.
I wish it would STFU for 5 minutes.
Hello,
I have a different expérience about loosing someone, I can't get it so easily as some people with aphantasia report. I feel really depressed and the fact that I can't imagine the person's face, can't remember souvenirs without being only straight facts and not something like a video type of thing makes me feel empty, very empty because i know there is someone missing, and there is nothing but unanimated picture on my phone.
And i can't get over it, still thinking about it for a while..
My mom, sister and I have aphantasia. My father recently passed so I’m not sure about him.
None of us can visualize anything in any matter
Frankly Im not a fan of the name 'aphantasia' since it sound more like theres no fantasy, not no imagery. Its too late know, but what words we choose is super important, and that one implies the wrong thing.
As I wrote on another video, I liken aphantasia to not having a monitor hooked up to an otherwise working computer. It has memory, processing, even 'output' of graphics, but nothing goes to the screen. Obviously this is just a simple analogy, but Ive been finding folks can imagine what that is like.
I think I have aphantasia and I ‘picture’ things descriptively using narration.
You talk about the possibility of aphantasia been heriditary. Is there a possibility that cas 9 genome editing can fix it?
I just went to your 'quiz' that was advertised at 45:00 and some change. There's a bunch of questions, and literally all of the answers are: do you got it, or not?
Be better.
I never heard of this before. I have been thinking about it. If people can just close their eyes and see and hear things why watch TV or listen to music? I am not sure I believe this. If there are these people it is wonderful for them. I could "imagine" a place and come up with a drawing since any place would do that I could draw. I do not understand how you can know any of this. Brain scans could be interpreted many ways. Lots of people claim lots of things and believe them too. I just cannot "imagine" this.
I have aphantasia. It's quite disabling in many ways. Never known any different.
So I have full visual and auditory aphantasia from birth (as far as I can tell) but the benefit of protection against prolonged traumatic reactions totally skipped me 😢
If i can think an apple and the smell or colors , did i have aphantasia or not? is brain fog also interfere brain visual cortex too? :( pls help me
According to the New York Times, only 0.7% of people have aphantasia. I feel like all these people are flipping out thinking they should see clear visions as if their eyes were open. That's not how it works.
As someone with CPTSD, and Aphantasia I have been doing with EMDR in a modified way with my doctor and it does help. I find I have more emotional flash backs, where the feelings are intense but are not accompanied by an image or exact memory. I don't know if this is related to Aphantasia or not. Also my mother and one sibling also have Aphantasia but also trauma form a young age.
I think the name Aphantasia is totally misleading for that kind of "condition", it should be rather an Avisualization. Because there is no shortage of fantasy for sure I can witness..
The one consistent thing about SDAM and aphantasia seems to be that everyone experiences them differently. This difference is in part genuinely because of the way we experience our inner world and partly because of a divergence of opinion about what these conditions actually cover. In particular, some people who claim to have a good memory say they have SDAM because they don't have first-person memories.
To me - who doesn't even have 5 memories of childhood to rub together - the "first person viewpoint" is a red herring.
When you have almost no memories, you don't have any perspective on the few episodes that you remember - and you don't really remember them as episodes anyway.
The handicap I experience is the almost complete lack of memory - not the lack of first-person perspective. A lack of first-person perspective is indeed a feature of the way I remember things, in the same way that the lack of a steering wheel is a characteristic of a horse. But it is - by far - not nearly as big a feature of my memory as my blurry, indistinct, limited, non-moving-picture recall of tiny disjointed fragments of events that might not have happened. I have no perspective at all. Not first-person, for sure, but not third-person either. None. No perspective. Just a vague knowing that something took place in my life.
Two research teams are working on aphantasia (one in Sidney and the other in Exeter). No one is doing any research on the lived experience of people who deal, throughout the day, all day and every day, with the condition of SDAM and its effect on their own lives and relationships, and on the lives of others.
The only research on SDAM is on its neurology and neurophysiology - because that's what the single research team (which is in Toronto) happens to be interested in. You can tell from the first paper written on SDAM, the one that gives the definition, that the team are interested in the neurology of the condition, but not the psychology, not what it means to the person with the deficient memory, and not how that person experiences it, nor how they understand the world.
The natural history of SDAM is, in short, unknown. It's frustrating. It's like having scientists working on the digestive functions of an organism while its ecology and behaviour remain un-researched.
I don't say that the team in Toronto is at fault in any way - their training is in the neural correlates of memory, not on the psychology of deficient memory. But it is sad for those of us who live without a memory of our past lives that nobody else is interested in finding out more about what we experience.
This all means that those of us with the condition have no scientific guidelines or understanding to help us in our discussions as we try to make sense of our relationship with our own past.
My mother can visualize extremely well, as can my siblings and daughter. My father and myself cannot, and I appear to have multi sensory aphantia, while he doesn’t
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Is there any research/studies we as Aphants can be a part of?
At the bottom of this article, Evaluating the Mind's Eye (aphantasia.com/vviq-aphantasia-test/), you can sign up for ongoing research! There currently are a couple studies in the pipeline.
@@AphantasiaNetwork Hi, thanks for this interview
I have here something for Prof. Adam Zeman as he may develop a simple test using the "internal counting" method by Richard Feynman.
If you could pass it along, it may be useful. Thanx
ua-cam.com/video/Cj4y0EUlU-Y/v-deo.html
no free test? I mean, not that I need cuz I'm 100% at the 0 scale, but.. People in third world contries can't afford that, at least 80% of us lol
Myself and my daughter have it. I thought I was just not that smart but she is gifted and in all advanced classes so I just don't know. We both love art but can really only draw and paint with a reference. I always wanted to make original art from my mind like music or a painting but cant😞
Sometimes when I visualise something it feels way more real than anything in the real wolrd. For example - when I was reading the Chronicles of Narnia, my brain visualised things so vividly / it felt extremely real, my brain was no longer seeing words on a page (even though that's what it was doing) but it was like I was actually in that place Lewis was describing, cold air, green grass and all. ☺️ Sometimes, when I listen to certain songs, my brain start playing clips in there and they feel quite real, and it's like I'm there, like watching a movie I'm actually in; sometimes it does this out of nowhere, like watching a short movie without knowing it's about to happen and the world just falls away. Occasionally, I imagine being in a place, flying or something, and at some point my brain no longer allows me to leave, I try imagining myself leaving that place but it just won't let it happen, it essentially traps me there, to the point where I have to open my eyes to break free.
It's descriptions like these that make me fell like I am missing out due to having aphantasia. I can dream and I can be quite creative but for most of my life when people talked about immersion I thought they meant "to be really focused on a thing due to enjoyment". I wish I could read a book and feel like I am literally there. I wish I could recall my two dead cats and listen to their meows and chirps once more when I am feeling down. Like I remember things but I cannot just conjure them up or hear them in my mind ya know? Luckily I have dreams which can somehow be quite visual, auditory and touchy. Never been able to smell or taste anything in dreams tho. Me being able to dream has begun to feel weird tho cuz in a lot of places I've read people that have a similar degree of aphantasia as me cannot dream in picture and stuff like that. I remember as a child having vivid dreams and I still sometimes do. Had sleep paralysis where I hear things, see things, etc. Sometimes when I've had paralysis I am able to change what I hear even. Like if I think of a song it starts playing in my ears with static. Probably because it was failed lucid dreaming attempts. I really wanna try some form of psychedelic to see if they have any visual effects on me but lol tbh I am not sure when I'll get around to doing that haha
But yeah for as long as I've had memory I've never been able to visualize anything while awake when asked to "picture" or imagine something. No picture, no audio, no touch, no smell, etc.
It is wonderful how the brain can be so different tho and I do not feel as bad about having it as I probably sound. Yeah I feel bad I cannot do stuff like you've mentioned but I have lived into my 20s without knowing and done fine just like other people. Plus theoretically it has some benefits. We probably are less likely to suffer from PTSD and stuff like that. But yeah it does not bother me so much. If some form of "cure" ever came to be I personally would take it but I know that is probably toxic thinking from living in the world we live in. Plus it'll probably be a far future dilemma. We still have so many unknowns when it comes to the mind a "cure" is definitely not going to be a consideration in my lifetime.
I think it is MORE a problem of DEALING with REALITY! The first words of "Lucy in the sky with diamonds"; "Picture yourself in a boat on a river" John can OBVIOUSLY "picture" the scene so maybe he had hyperphantasia???
I have Aphantasia, ADHD and Dyslexia. I don't see this as a disorder or handicap, I have a natural ability to think in the abstract. Also doesn't seem to run in my family but I wonder whether it is learned rather than passed on. If the purpose of the brain is to control our systems and allow us to better predict and navigate survival, there is usually more than one way to solve a problem. I think this is just the brain doing that in a less normative way. Perhaps trauma can prompt some people to process information through aphantasia as a more effective/safer way to navigate the world without the downside of flashbacks? It could be that a lack of attention or a different way of learning might result in a different way of processing information in the backend. To me it seems more efficient to process external stimuli in the abstract and then process all information in the same format. We loose the quality of our external senses as we age, I wonder if aphantasia could protect against degenerative disorders as memories are stored without connection to these areas. I wish I had known about this while I was studying, it might have been the topic to keep me in academia.
If any one can get ahold of this Dr I would love to know his opinion on people with schizophrenia, who had it come onset late or all their life, have any similarities between the two. I hope the treatment may also be able to be understood better in that aspect if fellow strong minds could look into it.
I’ve done the tests, and am part of the network. Both my sons have Aphantasia, but my daughter does not. Today, I was talking to my sister, and we discovered she has it too. I was stunned! What research has been done about Aphantasia being genetic? I have not asked my Brothers, one was a sculptor and a graphic designer as a profession. I am so interested in discovering more about this. I only found out about this a few months ago. My Aphantasia is a solid 0. Blank. No colours or images. At all.
Stay tuned, the research has moved at an incredible pace in a short time and is accelerating, thanks to widespread public fascination of extreme imagination! Just this year, the first PhD in Mental Imagery graduated, and many researchers are entering the space. It is only a matter of time before the research is undertaken!
How about Aphantasia and those of us who’ve been through CVD19?
I am 7 months out, and still smell and taste is limited. Idk if that’s why my brain has been so negatively effected, but, I feel I’ve lost 30 IQ points. 😢
I just found out I have this. And I still can't believe people can see images in their mind. I've asked everyone I know nd I've only found one other person who can't. It's so weird. As a kid my dad would try to help me draw like him and he'd tell me just picture it and the draw and I never could I'd get so mad thinking there was something wrong with me. But I thought my dad saying picture it was just a figure of speech. I don't dream the only dreams I've had and the person I found is the same way is like really really bad dreams and it's only like once or twice a year. I've never day dreamed. But I am really good at remembering words and actions.
Welcome to the Network Ruby. You'll find many like minds here :)
What about visualizing with the eyes open? I cannot see anything with the eyes closed but I have a better idea (abstract transparent image) when I try to “visualize” with my eyes open
I believe that's the standard or 'normal' way people visualize. Being able to see things on the back of your eyelids is more of a hyperfantasic/higher end of the scale type of thing.