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At first glance it seems like there should be observable differences between the delusion hypothesis and the aphantasia hypothesis and thus they can be told apa
by the8472 8y ago
At first glance it seems like there should be observable differences between the delusion hypothesis and the aphantasia hypothesis and thus they can be told apart experimentally.
It might also be possible to check with MRI which areas of the brain are active and whether there's a difference between those groups. If something known to process visual data is active in some people and not in others it would be evidence against the delusion hypothesis. In fact, some of the cited papers seem to be doing something like that.
- Lerc 8y agoI'm not sure I would trust a (f)MRI analysis, but I expect it could be tested for. Experiment designers can come up with very cunning methods to tweak these things out. There are experiments showing that some people who are cortically blind can make decisions based upon the vision of which they have no sense experience. The McGurk effect demonstrates people having an experience that isn't real. In fact the McGurk effect also shows how difficult things get with terminology when you 'hear' something different to what you hear. It's the same problem I mentioned above. If you feel like you are hearing 'da' when your ears receive 'ba' what are you actually 'hearing'?
- no_identd 8y agoPeople have already done this... That's how we learned of aphantasia in the first place...