Imagine an
apple. Can you tell what color is it? What’s its shape and size? Can you rotate
it around in your mind, or place it in different scenery? How vivid is the
image in your head? Can you see the image at all? If not, you might be
suffering from aphantasia.
The
phenomenon has been named only recently, though hints of such a thing existing
have been noted as early as 1880. It is being researched more thoroughly since 2005,
when Professor Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter has studied a case of a
man who seemingly lost his ability to visualize after undergoing a minor surgery.
In 2015 Zeman’s team has published a paper on the topic of what they’ve called "congenital
aphantasia", leading to an increased interest in this affliction.
- Where are you located on that 0-10 scale? Can you see vivid imagery with your mind’s eye, or is yours blind as well?
- Would your life change much if you lacked (or possessed) the ability to picture things in your mind?
- Have you heard about this phenomenon before? Do you know of any other afflictions like this?
Comments
Imagine that you look at the picture of a red ball on an old motorola 2005 screen with a filthy film on the screen that already started to peel out. That is how I imagine apple. However, the text reference type stores in my memory perfectly. In fact, when I have to remember something, I never try to visualize it, although I don't have a completely blind mind eye, still it is completely unreliable for me, and practically useless. Instead, I create an object inside memory, and fill in the table alongside basic parameters, like apple.addParameter(colour, red); And when I an recalling those objects from a memory, I never refer to an image associated with them. They are anyway in low quality and highly indescriptive.
Does that affect me in any way? Well, my face recognition sucks, and all of my close friends know about that, so they know that I am not being rude when I do not say "Hello" when I meet them in the corridor. I just did nit recognize them. In other aspects of life? No.
I don't know how much my life would change if I lacked the ability to picture things - it would definitely change at least somewhat, but I'm not sure how crucial it is to my job and to my life.
I haven't heard about this before, but I do think that things like dyslexia or dysgraphia are similar afflictions - both are not immediately apparent and not truly visible to bystanders.
Probably the only problem would be planning your day. Most often, I use this kind of “image” of things when I fall asleep and plan what kind of pants I want to wear to work tomorrow, what I will look like in general, what I want to buy or take for a lunch. What kind of people I will meet tomorrow and what we will do with them. I can scroll all day in every detail in my head.
I do not know, did not pay attention that the visualization may be unrealistic for other people. I met people who clearly saw the color quite different, maybe we have a different perception?
I actually found out about aphantasia a few years ago, when I read some article about this. This was, at that time, just an interesting information for me, on par with knowing about color blindness. So I don't really try to imagine how my world would look like if I didn't possess the ability to see things in my mind. But when I've watched this first video, it was a bit of a surprise for me how it might have affected my life if I had aphantasia. For example, I love reading fantasy/SF and indeed imagining those fictional worlds and characters was always a part of the experience. The same goes for my hobby of role-playing games - I actually can imagine the character I play or the place I'm in thanks to the description of the game master. It would be much more like a computer game for me without it.
If I could not picture things in my mind, my world will definitely y be different. Starting with that I won't be able to become a programmer. Programming is strongly connected with data visualization, especially if you have to solve a complex problem, for example, complex computation od nested tree roots or understanding how different sorting algorithms work.
Unfortunately, I haven't heard about this phenomenon before, and I haven't heard about any other like this either.
In my opinion, we are conceived in many ways since we were born in childhood, until the moment we die. Perhaps sleeping is a real example of the abilities of humans about this.
I had not heard about this before, it was a very interesting video and taught me very informative content.
I think 8 is on a scale from 0 to 10. I easily imagine simple things. However, if I imagine something complicated with a lot of small details, it is not easy and takes more time for visualization and coloring.
Would your life change much if you lacked (or possessed) the ability to picture things in your mind?
I don't know. I rarely imagine something in my mind. I do not often work with design and art. I cannot imagine how you cannot visualize the objects that you see in reality :) It's quite strange feeling I think.
Have you heard about this phenomenon before? Do you know of any other afflictions like this?
Yes, I heard about this phenomenon from one blogger on YouTube. I was surprised. I don't know any other phenomenon like this.
My life certainly would've changed if this brain feature had been turned on, now. I was even curious, for a moment, how it is to be someone like that. Hopefully no one has access to my private settings.
I haven't heard about it and i find it interesting that you can your job apparently very well when you lack seemingly the most important trait.
2. I'd probably enjoy reading books much less that I usually do.
3. I've never heard about that phenomenon before. I am not aware of any other afflictions similar to this one.
I’d argue that having aphantasia does not disqualify you as a programmer. Admittedly, I have to use a lot of paper drawings for visual aid for things that you can probably picture in your head, but I don’t think that impairs my capability of solving complex problems.