Aphantasia, can you see mental images?

Sleeper12

People like myself with Aphantasia see no images. We have a blind minds eye. I close my eyes & all I ever see is black. No images at all. When I read a book I have no mental picture of characters etc. I'm wondering what percentage of Boardies have a blind minds eye?

My wife is the complete opposite. She sees very vivid pictures & videos all the time. in her head all the time. She has Hyphantasia

Sleeper12

1. I see no mental pictures

It's disappointing to see you can only chose one option

Arghus

3. I see vivid mental pictures

I'm intrigued OP.

How does it actually work?

When I'm reading, for instance, I always visualise what is being described - the way buildings look,the environment etc, etc, how characters look, everything basically - and it's always a bit of a headfck if I watch an adaptation of something that I've previously read, because what I see on screen doesn't tally with what I've seen in my head. I can't imagine reading without being able to imagine, as it were.

Brian201888

1. I see no mental pictures

I'm the same as you OP, can't picture things or people in my head. It's very hard to describe really

French Toast

3. I see vivid mental pictures

Interesting. Never heard of any such thing before.

Chose the option for vivid images as I know I'm a bit of a Walter Mitty type.

the_pen_turner

1. I see no mental pictures

Thanks sleeper. Another thing wrong with me.

Wait . What . So other people see things when they think about it. Like having a picture in front of them

Wow ,I never knew

Potatoeman

Do you put complex problems in the back of my mind to work on them and pull them up later resolved ? I thought everyone done this but apparently most don’t. (Also 3).

Sleeper12

1. I see no mental pictures

I'm mid 50s & only really found out now. All this time I assumed I was thinking & imagining the same way as everyone else. Although I do remember as a child my mum doing spellings with me. I wasn't doing well & she was loosing her patience. "Close your eyes & picture the word" she says. I reply saying the word isn't there. "Open your eyes. Look at the TV. Close your eyes & picture the TV". It's not there I replied & she replied with a wallop for telling lies. :) That would be 45 years ago. I can describe the TV. Wooden cabinet, 7 black buttons for 7 channels (even though we only had 3 or 4 channels at the time) & another button slightly lower was the bower button. Rabbit ears on top. I haven't seen that TV since the early 80s. I can't see it in my head. If I try really hard I might be able to make out the square shape of it but I have to chase it. Sort of like a word on the tip of your tongue that you can never quite get. I remember data I don't remember a picture of it.

My wife was freaked. Almost 30 years married & I never told her that all I see is darkness when I close my eyes. From my point of view she never told me she could see full blown movies in her head! It really has brought it home to me how we assume all our perceptions are the same, when in fact what goes on in our head can be very different to our friends

Sonics2k

1. I see no mental pictures

Nope, and I only found out about this a little over a year ago. I always found it annoying in TV shows when people would have flashbacks and stuff and would actually see things.

I remember saying to a friend that it's nonsense because that doesn't happen, she said it does and we had a bit of back and forth. After some digging into it and a chat with a Doctor it turns out it's more normal for people to see things, even vaguely when they close their eyes.

sporina

3. I see vivid mental pictures

never heard of it.. wow - hands up who googled this upon reading? me!

I am the opposite..

i have such a photographic memory..

@Sleeper12 Did this affect your learning ability when younger?

Like, when I was doing exams, I could mentally picture my notes (although for the info to go into my head, I would have to understand it)..

In any event, it felt like a magical power lol

Vowel Movement

4. I only see black & white mental pictures

I can but only in black and white and sort of blurry looking

Celmullet

1. I see no mental pictures

I found out about a year ago when a meme was going around that other people saw pictures and had full-blown conversations with themselves. Like Sonics2k I thought that when they had people talking to themselves in movies it was just to progress the scene but not that people did that in real life.

It made me wonder if it is an extroverted thing, as I am an extrovert and rely on a lot of outside simulation. Sitting in silence is just boring.

5. I see colour mental pictures

I close my eyes and I see black and sort of fuzziness because there is nothing but black and fuzziness. It's a physical thing. However I imagine images if I want to. For example if I'm following a guided meditation then I can see all the pieces, walking by the sea or in a forest etc.

I can imagine how a certain dress would look on me or a hairstyle. All sorts of things. It is an active thing though. Ehm like I'm deciding to rather than it being spontaneous.

In saying that I have odd images have flashed through my mind completely out of the blue. They are memories, or scenes from a dream, or...I don't know really. Yeah. I need to think about this.

5. I see colour mental pictures

Oddly enough I have never not believed we all perceive the world differently both externally and internally.

pelliven

1. I see no mental pictures

I only heard about this recently while listening to a podcast. I was a bit shocked to find out people saw images while eyes were closed. Only see darkness myself.

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777319#Comment_117777319

Can you imagine images?

DavyD_83

Hmm, I'm definitely somewhere on this spectrum I'd say. But like others I've never really seen a clear description of what is normal or any other experiences.

I kinda see/recall things in my brain rather than in my eyes, which it sounds like others can do.

I'll have a read of the articles, very curious now.

3. I see vivid mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775880#Comment_117775880

Yeah that's such a disappointment for me too. But sometimes I'll see a trailer for a film and before I even know what it is or what it's about, just from the scenery or the characters alone, I'm able to say 'I read the book!!'. That is so satisfying and so impressive that the author did such a great job of their descriptions that the images were obviously the same for most readers.

Mam of 4

3. I see vivid mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775880#Comment_117775880

This !

I always thought that everyone did this tbh , visualising the story in your head as your reading the book , watching the story unfold with the characters and different settings , just like it was a film .

pelliven

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777413#Comment_117777413

I can safely say that i dont know anymore. Never really thought about it untill the last week or so. I think its more a memory and not an image. Dont really have/ remember visual dreams either.

3. I see vivid mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777480#Comment_117777480

Yeah I see what I'm reading like a film in my head too mam.

wench

1. I see no mental pictures

I've never been able to see mental images, but just thought it was normal. Heard about aphantasia a couple of years back, and it's made things make more sense.

When people would say "picture a tree", I thought they just meant to think about a tree, and what it looks like. I didn't realise they could actually see it.

Arghus

3. I see vivid mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777319#Comment_117777319

It's not quite seeing things as such. Not in the same way as seeing something in front of your eyes, more a case of being able to visualise something. When I close my eyes I see black, obviously, but if someone said visualise a river or a lake I don't literally see that river or that lake, but I also would picture it with my minds eye. I appreciate that it's hard to explain!

And your eyes don't necessarily have to be closed either. Recollections can be like running a film in your head or seeing snapshots of a place or a time etc. I also often can remember things like the quality of the light, or the noise or the smells of a memory as well as just the visuals.

I had heard about the phenomenon before, that some people couldn't do that. Which does seem incredible to me, no offence! So if someone told you to imagine a red chair, you wouldn't automatically picture it or the face of one of your friends? I have to say I'm surprised at the amount of people who are saying they can't visualise something mentally at all in the poll. Surely to be able to picture absolutely nothing must be pretty rare.

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777561#Comment_117777561

Yes that's how it is for me. I sleep black when I close my eyes but can visualise pictures and all sorts of things.

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777263#Comment_117777263

I can be extroverted, we are too complex to be simply one way or the other I feel, and I'm able to sit in silence, talk to myself, visualise, and all that jazz.

So it really is dependent on the individual.

5. I see colour mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117775983#Comment_117775983

Can you explain this a little more?

Sleeper12

1. I see no mental pictures

I have a pretty active inner voice or monologue. It is me, my mind but it uses expressions or sayings that have never passed my own lips. I find that entertaining at times. The inner monologue helps me problem solve. Some people have absolutely no inner monologue. It's totally silent in their head /mind.

Spore

4. I only see black & white mental pictures

I can 'see' pretty photo-realistic images but the colours are quite muted, not quite black and white but not exactly technicolour. Also I don't really see the whole picture but rather a scan of the parts of the image. It's weird. But on a side note I can hear music perfectly. Note for note. And not only that I can compose in my head, if I don't like a part of a composition I can 'play' a different instrument over it. It's a killer though if I have to hear a song I don't like and it sticks in my head. When I worked a panto years ago it nearly mentally destroyed me. Those songs are still stuck in my head. Along with Dustin the bollix Turkey.

Sleeper12

1. I see no mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117778217#Comment_117778217

I can't hear music in my mind. I can't summon it up might be a better way to explain it. Even my favourite songs that I've listened to for decades, I can't play them in my mind.

Spore

4. I only see black & white mental pictures

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777539#Comment_117777539

I find that fascinating, I mean, how do you recall people's faces? Or if you think back to a film you saw, how does your brain process that? Does it simply categorise things? Like in your example of a tree, is your brain thinking 'tree... goes with nature' etc. but no image? Do you hear a voice rather than 'see' an image?

sporina

3. I see vivid mental pictures

for those of you who say you don't have mental images - does that mean that you can't see your loved ones in your mind? like, if your away from them and you miss them.. and when you think about them, can you seem them in your mind or not?