Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest YouTube LinkedIn TikTok
    TopBuzzMagazine.com
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest YouTube LinkedIn TikTok
    • Home
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Books
    • Science
    • Technology
    • Cover Story
    • Contact
      • About
      • Amazon Disclaimer
      • Terms and Conditions
      • Privacy Policy
      • DMCA / Copyrights Disclaimer
    TopBuzzMagazine.com
    Home»Science»Does Not Being Able to Picture Something in Your Mind
    Science

    Does Not Being Able to Picture Something in Your Mind

    By AdminMarch 18, 2023
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Does Not Being Able to Picture Something in Your Mind

    This is Science, Quickly, a podcast from Scientific American. I’m Stefano Montali. 

    If I asked you to visualize, say, Harry Potter, you’d probably have no problem picturing him in your mind: a teenage wizard with black hair, glasses, a thunderbolt-shaped scar on his forehead and a wand in his hand. It would almost be as if you were pulling up a photograph in your head.

    This ability to visualize is often called the “mind’s eye,” and most people would say it’s as inherent as breathing. But it turns out that’s not quite true. Estimates say about 1 percent of the population lives with an extreme form of a condition called aphantasia. Those who have it can’t visualize anything in their head. 

    Joel Pearson: So when they try and imagine and think about what an apple looks like, it’s just nothing. It’s black on black. For example, when I think about an apple, I can catch up a conscious experience of an apple. I can see a stem. I can see a leaf. I can see a drop of water on there. It’s not like holding an apple in my hand, but I have an experience of an apple. Someone with aphantasia doesn’t have that experience.

    Montali: Joel Pearson is a professor of cognitive neuroscience and director of the Future Minds Lab at the University of New South Wales in Australia. He’s been studying mental imagery, including in the context of aphantasia, and cognition since 2008. One of the main questions, he says, has always been finding a way to accurately measure it.

    Pearson: Back then almost no one was studying visual imagery, because it was so hard to measure, right? It was just questionnaires and maybe an interview.

    The problem with questionnaires is that you and me could both imagine an apple. And our imagery could be exactly the same. But I might rate it a “4,” and you might rate it a “1,” even though we consciously internally experienced the exact same thing—or vice versa: maybe we have totally different imagery and both rated [it] as “2.” So that’s kind of the inherent problem of metacognition when it comes to questionnaires. So a lot of what we do with Future Minds Lab is trying to develop new ways of measuring the mind—objective, reliable ways, likea microscope for the mind or a blood test to measure the mind.

    Montali: One of the lab’s experimentsexplored how a lack of mental imagery affects the way people with aphantasia respondin a hypothetical stressful situation. 

    Pearson: We did another experiment, which was having people come into a dark room and read these scary stories on the screen. We found that people with imagery, when we measure their skin conductance response, get this nice escalating response during the story. Those with aphantasia get sort of a flatlining, bumpy thing, whereas if we show both those groups scary images on the screen, both groups go up. So when it’s perceptual, no real difference. When it’s words on the screen, a role for mental imagery is a clear difference.

    Montali: Building on this research, Pearson and his team then recruited people with aphantasia from the Sydney, Australia, area tocome to the lab for another experiment. This time, he asked the participants to imagine a dark object and then a light one.

    Pearson:Your pupil contracts when you’re imagining the bright thing just like it does if I look up at the light. And with imagery, their pupil was different in the light condition. No imagery, with aphantasia, there’s no real difference there.

    Montali: For a person to be able to volunteer for this type of experiment, they first have to realize that they have aphantasia. But how do you know that you can’t visualize if you don’t even know that other people can? Quite often, Pearson says, the epiphany takes place in a meditation class.

    Pearson: The teacher will be saying, “Now picture this and picture that.” And they’ll be getting more and more frustrated, saying, “They keep saying that. What do they mean? I can’t picture that.” I compare it to people discovering they’re color-blind. They just don’t know what they’re missing until someone describes, somehow, the vivid experience of color. Then they go, “Oh, wait, what?”

    Montali: On a brighter note, though, there are many successful, creative people that live with the condition. Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull is one. Glen Keane, a character animator behind films such as The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, is another. So is there a connection between imagery, aphantasia and creativity?

    Pearson: I get lots of e-mails from people saying, “Oh my God, I’ve realized I have aphantasia. That’s why I’m not creative.” There doesn’t seem to be any roadblocks there. In fact, we’re running a creativity study now here in Future Minds, and again, the data does not support any difference in creativity measures for those with aphantasia. So even though people tend to sort of have some intuition—they think thatthere should be a lack of creativity in aphantasia, thedata doesn’t support that so far.

    Montali: Living without mental imagery might seem like a disadvantage, butPearson says there are benefits as well—especially in terms of those living with anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

    Pearson: All the data we have so far suggests that the more vivid your imagery is, the more prone you are to develop PTSD after a trauma. So there’s a couple of things already pointing to the fact that things around anxiety are going to be different and less so without imagery.

    Montali: But what about good memories? Do they stick around? Pearson says yes, just in a different way.

    Pearson: So that can take on a number of different semantics, ideas, concepts, spatial locations, emotions and sometimes different senses. So you can break aphantasia up into multisensory aphantasia—so let’s blind across all the senses—whileor pure visual aphantasia. So while people’s lifelong memories have less details if they have aphantasia, they’re still there. It’s not catastrophic. Their memories aren’t lost. They just take on a different format.

    Montali: Thanks for listening. For Scientific American’s 60-Second Science, I’m Stefano Montali. 

    Read The Full Article Here

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

    Related Posts

    How government use of AI could hurt democracy

    July 12, 2025

    Wildfire forces evacuation of part of Grand Canyon

    July 11, 2025

    1,600-year-old tomb of Maya city’s first ruler unearthed in Belize

    July 11, 2025

    Peculiar plant could help us reconstruct ancient Earth’s climate

    July 10, 2025

    Chemicals from turmeric and rhubarb could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria lurking in wastewater

    July 10, 2025

    Metformin may prevent severe morning sickness

    July 9, 2025
    popular posts

    She-Hulk Explained: Who Is Intelligencia, the Newest MCU Villains Group

    The Ledger: Music Stocks Are Rebounding at the End of

    What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?

    Book Genres That Don’t Exist But We Wish They Did

    What to Watch: Single Drunk Female, Titans, The Marevelous Mrs

    A Russian cargo ship burnt to a crisp in Earth’s

    Succession Ramps Up the Drama for the Coming War in

    Categories
    • Books (3,282)
    • Cover Story (4)
    • Events (18)
    • Fashion (2,446)
    • Interviews (43)
    • Movies (2,581)
    • Music (2,859)
    • News (155)
    • Politics (1)
    • Science (4,431)
    • Technology (2,574)
    • Television (3,304)
    • Uncategorized (932)
    Archives
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest YouTube Reddit TikTok
    © 2025 Top Buzz Magazine. All rights reserved. All articles, images, product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos, and brands does not imply endorsement unless specified. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
    Do not sell my personal information.
    Cookie SettingsAccept
    Manage consent

    Privacy Overview

    This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
    Necessary
    Always Enabled
    Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
    CookieDurationDescription
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
    cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
    viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
    Functional
    Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
    Performance
    Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
    Analytics
    Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
    Advertisement
    Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
    Others
    Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
    SAVE & ACCEPT