What is it called when you can picture things in your mind?
What is it called when you can picture things in your mind?
Most people can readily conjure images inside their head – known as their mind's eye. But this year scientists have described a condition, aphantasia, in which some people are unable to visualise mental images.
What is Aphantasia?
Aphantasia is a mental condition characterized by an inability to voluntarily visualize mental imagery. Many people with aphantasia also report an inability to recall sounds, smells, or sensations of touch. Some also report prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces.
What does mental image mean?
A mental image or mental picture is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of visually perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses.
What causes Aphantasia?
Many people have had aphantasia since birth, but others have acquired it following a brain injury, or sometimes after periods of depression or psychosis. Some individuals don't dream in images, like Zeman's first patient, but others can, even though they are unable to visualise while they're awake.
