8 ms·

Aphantasia

85 points by notjtrig 7y ago

michaelbuckbee 7y ago
A little slow, but this video is fantastic for describing the feeling of aphantasia and it's sort of doubly fascinating that the incredibly talented artist who made it suffers from it (as I'm the flip side, great at visualizing and horrid at creation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsGmhAjjjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsGmhAjjjI
ex3xu 7y ago
The linked Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) wikipage only provides a hard-to-read Youtube video or software download as sources. Here's a link to the 16-question quiz from aphantasia.com (JS required): https://aphantasia.com/quiz/ https://aphantasia.com/quiz/ I'll add a YMMV, as aphantasia.com adds the following caveats: "...it can be hard to classify the vividness of a mental image on a scale from 1-5 when you have nothing to use as a reference point. It is difficult to rank your vividness of mental imagery when you can’t know how strongly other people visualize. The test asks you to compare the vision in your head with how you know it looks in real life in order to reconcile this somewhat: is the scenario you are being asked to visualize equally vivid to its real world counterpart, a little less vivid, or not vivid at all/non-existent? Further, any test that relies on self-reporting will always be subject to some bias due to the fact that you are more likely to subconsciously (or consciously) choose answers that will give you the result that you want. "
michaelbuckbee 7y ago
A related subject to this is auditory "visualization" and I wonder if that could be a way to study it some more: 1. Get a group of test subjects who can all read music as a baseline 2. Get them to self-assess on how well they can "hear" imagined notes. 3. Give them a pitch test to see how well their "internally heard" note matches a pitch? The hypothesis being that those with perfect pitch have a really great internal "ear".
pella 7y ago
3y ago: - https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504 https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-... - HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894
wet_grass_sound 7y ago
There is a finite number of souls.
iddan 7y ago
Great video about it https://youtu.be/ewsGmhAjjjI https://youtu.be/ewsGmhAjjjI
RenRav 7y ago
I first learned other people could imagine/visualize when I had trouble following meditation instructions online a few years back. As neat as it sounds to visualize and see things in my head, it doesn't seem necessary for anything.
codezero 7y ago
Maybe someone has better resources, but I found it interesting that the paper linked within about the particular patient MX, says, ...mental imagery is ubiquitous..., but I can't find an example of what people consider mental imagery. Is what I consider mental imagery the same as someone else? I dunno. FWIW, for me, mental imagery seems to take the form of a very brief flash when I'm thinking of a simple object, like a rock, for example. But I assume it extends into less concrete things like when I'm daydreaming, where there is no distinct clear image, it's more of an inner monologue of themes/intent with a few flashes of imagery here and there.
theogravity 7y ago
I have this (unable to have any kind of mental imagery at all, and discovered that it was not normal via the Facebook article by Blake Ross years ago) and unscientifically correlate this condition as part of my lack of ability to remember certain things and recall events with storytelling ability. I also sometimes have problems remembering names and eventually forget faces as well if I'm out of contact with someone for a long time. Anyone else with aphantasia relate to this, or are my issues unrelated? My wife, who describes herself as having very vivid mental imagery and says she has involuntary photographic memory at times (as in she does not know what triggers a memory to be completely photographic), has superb memory, and I personally believe it's what enables her to quickly learn so many languages. So as a result (I know, based on sample size one), I'm led to personally believe that my memory-related issues may have some correspondence to aphantasia.
- napsterbr 7y ago
  > discovered that it was not normal Ah this was so surprising to me as well. It was mind blowing suddenly realizing how powerful other people's visual imagination is. Allow me to contribute to the sample size: I probably have aphantasia. It requires a lot of effort to imagine simple, basic visual details when thinking of something. I am terrible at describing faces of people I see every day, let alone strangers. But when I do see someone I know, I usually recognize them instantly, even if their face changed a bit (facial hair change, long time no see etc). I also am great with names. Once I get to know someone, I'll probably remember their name for a very long time (decades). I can remember the full name of most of my friends from 15 years ago. But other than that, my memory is really bad. I do have one odd thing that I've always wondered. Most women's faces look like the same to me. In movies, I have a hard time knowing which women they are talking about (and it takes some time to associate a name to a face). Yet, I have no such problem with men. Possibly related, I am attracted to men, which could explain why I can easily differentiate each men, but most women look the same for me. Anyone with similar experiences?
  - mattmanser 7y ago
    I have aphantasia, I'm terrible with names but like you am excellent with faces. I think the three are totally unrelated.
wyldfire 7y ago
Either it's Baader-Meinhof effect at work or this came from [1][2]. I can't imagine what it's like to not be able to picture things but now I wonder if I'm really picturing things at all or if I'm just imagining them. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4i94n/tifu_by_explaining_my_synesthesia_to_my_boyfriend/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4i94n/tifu_by_explai... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4lzwm/tifu_by_reading_a_reddit_post_and_learning_that_i/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4lzwm/tifu_by_readin...
- anthony_romeo 7y ago
  Personally, I suspect an analogy along the lines of... if my brain has a GPU to process what I actually see with my eyes, then the conjured images in my minds-eye are just my brain leveraging that GPU for processing other thoughts or memories. As a consequence, I get a sensation similar to "seeing" when I think. Perhaps people with aphantasia can't input their own thoughts into their GPU?
  - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
    If we're going to go along those lines, my GPU is not installed. Everything is coming out via the line printer. My visualisation of images rates as 0/10 - power cut in a basement. I can't even create a colour (except the inside of my eyelids on a sunny day). Not even aware of a visual component in dreams. But I can mentally 3D model. I can sort-of "just know" how things interrelate that is more an unconscious time and distance journey around the thing. It works well enough to plan a model, something I want to build from wood, or redesign the kitchen with an idea of where the possible clashes are, before I hit paper. So the spatial sense is there - somehow. Explaining it without a lot of hand-waving "I just sort-of know" is a challenge I also fail at. It's more like asking you to visualise something non-visual like honesty I suspect.
  - shinyshoes 7y ago
    I think that's a good analogy. From my hobby neuroscience studies I'd say that what we see in life is more or less a selective hallucination (we filter out, for instance, electromagnetic fields which bees can actually see) -- so it's almost more literal than merely it being similar to seeing. It likely is equivalent to seeing or very close. Dreaming, for instance, creates life-like imagery despite being technically disconnected from incoming light/inputs. Our brains are wild little nodes.
mft_ 7y ago
OP, out of interest, did you come across this due to a TIL on Reddit earlier?
Symmetry 7y ago
Imagine a man is walking down the street of a town. He finds the shop he was meaning to buy something in and enters it. Now, were you imagining this scene from a particular viewpoint? Did the man turn to the left or to the right? Was he wearing any particular clothes? Were they any particular color? Was the front of the store of any particular material? And could you still see the man in the store even though he might be, from your mind's eye's point of view, be behind a wall?
- justinpombrio 7y ago
  I like this as an attempt to operationalize mental imagery, which is very difficult to pin down. > Now, were you imagining this scene from a particular viewpoint? Yes, from above. > Did the man turn to the left or to the right? Yes, to the left. > Was he wearing any particular clothes? Were they any particular color? Was the front of the store of any particular material? No, no, and no. > And could you still see the man in the store even though he might be, from your mind's eye's point of view, be behind a wall? My mental imagery ended as he entered the store. But if it had continued, I think it would have switched to a vantage point inside the store.
- laszlokorte 7y ago
  While reading your first two sentences I just imagined it on the detail level of xkcd comics. Then when reading your question about the viewpoint the details increased and saw the stream from the perspective from a top of a building. The man did not wear any clothes. I could not tell the material of the store front because it's just as it were roughly sketched. When thinking about the man in the store a scene from little britain [1] comes to my mind. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFQ_ZrRqBlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFQ_ZrRqBlQ edit: actually when thinking about it most images in my head are mashups of memories. Like I am sure the street I imagined comes from either a tv show or some language learning materials that where used to introduce vocabulary related to shopping or urban life.
- narag 7y ago
  Ahem, so those questions, why do you ask? I imagine the man walking right to left from the other side of the street, the scene was black & white like an old movie and the man was dressed accordingly, hat included, the shop front made of wood panels. You said the man entered the store, but you stopped at that moment, so don't ask what happened later.
benchplz 7y ago
Imagine that
CodiePetersen 7y ago
I imagine it's hard to objectively measure this. You also have to trust the interviewee.
harel 7y ago
This, as a passing interest in HN and other sources started recently, I think, by a former big shot at Pixar who wrote (or was written about) having a blind mind's eye. Personally this article turned my world slightly upside down since I can't visualise. Instead I conceptualise ideas in total "darkness", without any visual imagery of any kind. I never thought twice about it and assumed everyone use the term "visualise" to describe what I'm experiencing. Because of the story posted, I learned after 43 years of existence in this body, that many people use the term visualise because they "visualise" imagery. I kinda felt cheated out of a really cool trait I suddenly never possessed (although it does now explain a lot of things I think might be related).
- deogeo 7y ago
  > (although it does now explain a lot of things I think might be related). If you'd like to share, I'm curious.
  - harel 7y ago
    This is just a collection of things I've read that might or might not be related, mixed with my intuition of what might or might not be related: * Absolute rubbish sense of direction. I get lost on a straight road with a GPS. I can't look at a map and visualise a route - i need to properly understand it or know it from repetition (a lot of). * maybe a plus, maybe not even related - i can visualise sounds and music. I can play back a song or compose a tune in my head. I can "speak" in any accent in my head perfectly - it doesn't translate if I try it out loud but that is just bad speech skills. I also do some music production so this helps though I admit replicating the sound I hear is often very hard. * No attachment to past events. I can't "visualise" past arguments or bad events, so I'm left with a concept of them which very quickly fades away as it's just "words". Bygones are really bygones. This one I read somewhere as related. Not sure it is, but I do relate. * I can't draw to save my life, but I can at least copy something if it's simple and right in front of me. Always at awe at people who can draw out of their head (and I'm a son of an artist). * I remember events from a very early age (earliest memory is from 3 years old approx). But again, I remember specific actions i've done, and can recall the scene, but not visually. Just the idea/concept of it. * Just generally feeling like I missed out on something that is really cool. And more than that, missed out on the fact I'm missing out for 43 years. * I rarely remember dreams, but when I do it's a treat because in my dreams I do "see" the dream. I'm always excited when I wake up remembering a dream. It doesn't last though, I forget it soon enough, but that initial moment I know I "saw" something is really nice. * All those exercises of seeing a photo and then having to recall it - I find those really hard. I can only recall what I memorised verbally (One shoe, two combs on a table etc) - but can't recall the image itself visually.
lqet 7y ago
Reading the text by Blake Ross [0], I wonder: how on earth does he buy furniture, if he cannot visualize how the couch will look in his living room? [0] https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-...
- uxp100 7y ago
  I also "have" (feels weird) aphantasia. Well, it's kinda hard, but I actually do look at a fair bit of antique furniture, and do a little wood working and repair, and I focus on materials, measurements and condition. Then when in place I can move things around and get a feel for a layout. A couch I would go by measurement largely, I know what's too big for my living room. For colors I try to use a color wheel or look for other peoples pictures online like "oak pub table with blue walls" etc.
extr 7y ago
Something I don't see people mention much is a sense of dynamic resolution to mental imagery. I took the quiz posted here and it felt completely meaningless to me. If you want me to visualize a scene, there aren't really details until I give it details. If I'm told to imagine a wooden door with no other instructions it's like I'm seeing the door in a passing glance or out of the corner of my eye. If you ask me if it's "clear and vivid", I can make it that way to any arbitrary degree needed. Looking closer and seeing that the wood is old and somewhat warped, feel the cracks in the wood, look closer and see the brass on the handle has discolored slightly from use, etc etc. But it feels pointless to do. Certainly it's at least as detailed as a real life image, if I think about it, but it's definitely not like, crowding out my actual vision with it's sheer lucidity, which some of the answers seem to suggest.
- phaedrus 7y ago
  I'm a highly visual person, I expect I'd score 5/5 on each of the 16 questions. In the absence of specific hints my brain will happily auto-generate arbitrary details. My mental imagery does, in fact, "crowd out my actual vision with it's sheer lucidity" as you so well put it. If I need to focus on what I'm actually seeing I sometimes have to exert mental effort to push visualization aside, in much the same way you might push down negative thoughts to calm anxiety before e.g. public speaking. Conversely I find it very difficult to think about things which I can't visualize (but I'm good at coming up imagery to represent things). Most of my internal "dialog" is without words.
- djakjxnanjak 7y ago
  I’m the same way, details in my visualization only appear where my attention is directed.
  - zachsnow 7y ago
    It seems to me that is how my eyesight works, too, so it’s unsurprising that’s how my mind’s “eyesight” works as well!
croddin 7y ago
All of the articles I have seen seem to focus on being able to recall imagery. Is there a similar difference in ability of recalling other senses? I can visualize in my head to some degree and I can recall sounds to some degree, but I don't think I can "smell in my head" for example.
wyldfire 7y ago
I wonder whether this condition relates at all to the theory of mind and/or empathy.
slartibardfast0 7y ago
Many interesting comments on a recent previous article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19618927 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19618927
ncmncm 7y ago
I don't doubt the experience, but the fact strikes me as impossible. Everything you "see" around you, that your eyes are not pointed directly at, right at this moment, is 100% visualized, in full perspective and living color. So, unless you have extreme tunnel vision (which does exist, but they can't drive, or read at any speed), you have excellent visualization capacity. I am forced to conclude that you have, instead, very strong suppression of non-sensory-driven visualization.
toonbit 7y ago
I wrote an article on this a while back https://medium.com/@danielwhyte/wireframes-are-a-non-inclusive-tool-why-i-avoid-using-them-19a4a5835705 https://medium.com/@danielwhyte/wireframes-are-a-non-inclusi...

85 points by notjtrig 7y ago

A little slow, but this video is fantastic for describing the feeling of aphantasia and it's sort of doubly fascinating that the incredibly talented artist who made it suffers from it (as I'm the flip side, great at visualizing and horrid at creation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsGmhAjjjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewsGmhAjjjI

ex3xu 7y ago

The linked Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) wikipage only provides a hard-to-read Youtube video or software download as sources. Here's a link to the 16-question quiz from aphantasia.com (JS required): https://aphantasia.com/quiz/ https://aphantasia.com/quiz/ I'll add a YMMV, as aphantasia.com adds the following caveats: "...it can be hard to classify the vividness of a mental image on a scale from 1-5 when you have nothing to use as a reference point. It is difficult to rank your vividness of mental imagery when you can’t know how strongly other people visualize. The test asks you to compare the vision in your head with how you know it looks in real life in order to reconcile this somewhat: is the scenario you are being asked to visualize equally vivid to its real world counterpart, a little less vivid, or not vivid at all/non-existent? Further, any test that relies on self-reporting will always be subject to some bias due to the fact that you are more likely to subconsciously (or consciously) choose answers that will give you the result that you want. "

michaelbuckbee 7y ago

A related subject to this is auditory "visualization" and I wonder if that could be a way to study it some more: 1. Get a group of test subjects who can all read music as a baseline 2. Get them to self-assess on how well they can "hear" imagined notes. 3. Give them a pitch test to see how well their "internally heard" note matches a pitch? The hypothesis being that those with perfect pitch have a really great internal "ear".

pella 7y ago

3y ago: - https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504 https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-... - HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11554894

wet_grass_sound 7y ago

There is a finite number of souls.

iddan 7y ago

Great video about it https://youtu.be/ewsGmhAjjjI https://youtu.be/ewsGmhAjjjI

RenRav 7y ago

I first learned other people could imagine/visualize when I had trouble following meditation instructions online a few years back. As neat as it sounds to visualize and see things in my head, it doesn't seem necessary for anything.

codezero 7y ago

Maybe someone has better resources, but I found it interesting that the paper linked within about the particular patient MX, says, ...mental imagery is ubiquitous..., but I can't find an example of what people consider mental imagery. Is what I consider mental imagery the same as someone else? I dunno. FWIW, for me, mental imagery seems to take the form of a very brief flash when I'm thinking of a simple object, like a rock, for example. But I assume it extends into less concrete things like when I'm daydreaming, where there is no distinct clear image, it's more of an inner monologue of themes/intent with a few flashes of imagery here and there.

theogravity 7y ago

I have this (unable to have any kind of mental imagery at all, and discovered that it was not normal via the Facebook article by Blake Ross years ago) and unscientifically correlate this condition as part of my lack of ability to remember certain things and recall events with storytelling ability. I also sometimes have problems remembering names and eventually forget faces as well if I'm out of contact with someone for a long time. Anyone else with aphantasia relate to this, or are my issues unrelated? My wife, who describes herself as having very vivid mental imagery and says she has involuntary photographic memory at times (as in she does not know what triggers a memory to be completely photographic), has superb memory, and I personally believe it's what enables her to quickly learn so many languages. So as a result (I know, based on sample size one), I'm led to personally believe that my memory-related issues may have some correspondence to aphantasia.

napsterbr 7y ago
> discovered that it was not normal Ah this was so surprising to me as well. It was mind blowing suddenly realizing how powerful other people's visual imagination is. Allow me to contribute to the sample size: I probably have aphantasia. It requires a lot of effort to imagine simple, basic visual details when thinking of something. I am terrible at describing faces of people I see every day, let alone strangers. But when I do see someone I know, I usually recognize them instantly, even if their face changed a bit (facial hair change, long time no see etc). I also am great with names. Once I get to know someone, I'll probably remember their name for a very long time (decades). I can remember the full name of most of my friends from 15 years ago. But other than that, my memory is really bad. I do have one odd thing that I've always wondered. Most women's faces look like the same to me. In movies, I have a hard time knowing which women they are talking about (and it takes some time to associate a name to a face). Yet, I have no such problem with men. Possibly related, I am attracted to men, which could explain why I can easily differentiate each men, but most women look the same for me. Anyone with similar experiences?
- mattmanser 7y ago
  I have aphantasia, I'm terrible with names but like you am excellent with faces. I think the three are totally unrelated.

wyldfire 7y ago

Either it's Baader-Meinhof effect at work or this came from [1][2]. I can't imagine what it's like to not be able to picture things but now I wonder if I'm really picturing things at all or if I'm just imagining them. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4i94n/tifu_by_explaining_my_synesthesia_to_my_boyfriend/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4i94n/tifu_by_explai... [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4lzwm/tifu_by_reading_a_reddit_post_and_learning_that_i/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/c4lzwm/tifu_by_readin...

anthony_romeo 7y ago
Personally, I suspect an analogy along the lines of... if my brain has a GPU to process what I actually see with my eyes, then the conjured images in my minds-eye are just my brain leveraging that GPU for processing other thoughts or memories. As a consequence, I get a sensation similar to "seeing" when I think. Perhaps people with aphantasia can't input their own thoughts into their GPU?
- NeedMoreTea 7y ago
  If we're going to go along those lines, my GPU is not installed. Everything is coming out via the line printer. My visualisation of images rates as 0/10 - power cut in a basement. I can't even create a colour (except the inside of my eyelids on a sunny day). Not even aware of a visual component in dreams. But I can mentally 3D model. I can sort-of "just know" how things interrelate that is more an unconscious time and distance journey around the thing. It works well enough to plan a model, something I want to build from wood, or redesign the kitchen with an idea of where the possible clashes are, before I hit paper. So the spatial sense is there - somehow. Explaining it without a lot of hand-waving "I just sort-of know" is a challenge I also fail at. It's more like asking you to visualise something non-visual like honesty I suspect.
- shinyshoes 7y ago
  I think that's a good analogy. From my hobby neuroscience studies I'd say that what we see in life is more or less a selective hallucination (we filter out, for instance, electromagnetic fields which bees can actually see) -- so it's almost more literal than merely it being similar to seeing. It likely is equivalent to seeing or very close. Dreaming, for instance, creates life-like imagery despite being technically disconnected from incoming light/inputs. Our brains are wild little nodes.

mft_ 7y ago

OP, out of interest, did you come across this due to a TIL on Reddit earlier?

Symmetry 7y ago

Imagine a man is walking down the street of a town. He finds the shop he was meaning to buy something in and enters it. Now, were you imagining this scene from a particular viewpoint? Did the man turn to the left or to the right? Was he wearing any particular clothes? Were they any particular color? Was the front of the store of any particular material? And could you still see the man in the store even though he might be, from your mind's eye's point of view, be behind a wall?

justinpombrio 7y ago
I like this as an attempt to operationalize mental imagery, which is very difficult to pin down. > Now, were you imagining this scene from a particular viewpoint? Yes, from above. > Did the man turn to the left or to the right? Yes, to the left. > Was he wearing any particular clothes? Were they any particular color? Was the front of the store of any particular material? No, no, and no. > And could you still see the man in the store even though he might be, from your mind's eye's point of view, be behind a wall? My mental imagery ended as he entered the store. But if it had continued, I think it would have switched to a vantage point inside the store.
laszlokorte 7y ago
While reading your first two sentences I just imagined it on the detail level of xkcd comics. Then when reading your question about the viewpoint the details increased and saw the stream from the perspective from a top of a building. The man did not wear any clothes. I could not tell the material of the store front because it's just as it were roughly sketched. When thinking about the man in the store a scene from little britain [1] comes to my mind. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFQ_ZrRqBlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFQ_ZrRqBlQ edit: actually when thinking about it most images in my head are mashups of memories. Like I am sure the street I imagined comes from either a tv show or some language learning materials that where used to introduce vocabulary related to shopping or urban life.
narag 7y ago
Ahem, so those questions, why do you ask? I imagine the man walking right to left from the other side of the street, the scene was black & white like an old movie and the man was dressed accordingly, hat included, the shop front made of wood panels. You said the man entered the store, but you stopped at that moment, so don't ask what happened later.

benchplz 7y ago

Imagine that

CodiePetersen 7y ago

I imagine it's hard to objectively measure this. You also have to trust the interviewee.

harel 7y ago

This, as a passing interest in HN and other sources started recently, I think, by a former big shot at Pixar who wrote (or was written about) having a blind mind's eye. Personally this article turned my world slightly upside down since I can't visualise. Instead I conceptualise ideas in total "darkness", without any visual imagery of any kind. I never thought twice about it and assumed everyone use the term "visualise" to describe what I'm experiencing. Because of the story posted, I learned after 43 years of existence in this body, that many people use the term visualise because they "visualise" imagery. I kinda felt cheated out of a really cool trait I suddenly never possessed (although it does now explain a lot of things I think might be related).

deogeo 7y ago
> (although it does now explain a lot of things I think might be related). If you'd like to share, I'm curious.
- harel 7y ago
  This is just a collection of things I've read that might or might not be related, mixed with my intuition of what might or might not be related: * Absolute rubbish sense of direction. I get lost on a straight road with a GPS. I can't look at a map and visualise a route - i need to properly understand it or know it from repetition (a lot of). * maybe a plus, maybe not even related - i can visualise sounds and music. I can play back a song or compose a tune in my head. I can "speak" in any accent in my head perfectly - it doesn't translate if I try it out loud but that is just bad speech skills. I also do some music production so this helps though I admit replicating the sound I hear is often very hard. * No attachment to past events. I can't "visualise" past arguments or bad events, so I'm left with a concept of them which very quickly fades away as it's just "words". Bygones are really bygones. This one I read somewhere as related. Not sure it is, but I do relate. * I can't draw to save my life, but I can at least copy something if it's simple and right in front of me. Always at awe at people who can draw out of their head (and I'm a son of an artist). * I remember events from a very early age (earliest memory is from 3 years old approx). But again, I remember specific actions i've done, and can recall the scene, but not visually. Just the idea/concept of it. * Just generally feeling like I missed out on something that is really cool. And more than that, missed out on the fact I'm missing out for 43 years. * I rarely remember dreams, but when I do it's a treat because in my dreams I do "see" the dream. I'm always excited when I wake up remembering a dream. It doesn't last though, I forget it soon enough, but that initial moment I know I "saw" something is really nice. * All those exercises of seeing a photo and then having to recall it - I find those really hard. I can only recall what I memorised verbally (One shoe, two combs on a table etc) - but can't recall the image itself visually.

lqet 7y ago

Reading the text by Blake Ross [0], I wonder: how on earth does he buy furniture, if he cannot visualize how the couch will look in his living room? [0] https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-feels-to-be-blind-in-your-mind/10156834777480504/ https://www.facebook.com/notes/blake-ross/aphantasia-how-it-...

uxp100 7y ago
I also "have" (feels weird) aphantasia. Well, it's kinda hard, but I actually do look at a fair bit of antique furniture, and do a little wood working and repair, and I focus on materials, measurements and condition. Then when in place I can move things around and get a feel for a layout. A couch I would go by measurement largely, I know what's too big for my living room. For colors I try to use a color wheel or look for other peoples pictures online like "oak pub table with blue walls" etc.

extr 7y ago

Something I don't see people mention much is a sense of dynamic resolution to mental imagery. I took the quiz posted here and it felt completely meaningless to me. If you want me to visualize a scene, there aren't really details until I give it details. If I'm told to imagine a wooden door with no other instructions it's like I'm seeing the door in a passing glance or out of the corner of my eye. If you ask me if it's "clear and vivid", I can make it that way to any arbitrary degree needed. Looking closer and seeing that the wood is old and somewhat warped, feel the cracks in the wood, look closer and see the brass on the handle has discolored slightly from use, etc etc. But it feels pointless to do. Certainly it's at least as detailed as a real life image, if I think about it, but it's definitely not like, crowding out my actual vision with it's sheer lucidity, which some of the answers seem to suggest.

phaedrus 7y ago
I'm a highly visual person, I expect I'd score 5/5 on each of the 16 questions. In the absence of specific hints my brain will happily auto-generate arbitrary details. My mental imagery does, in fact, "crowd out my actual vision with it's sheer lucidity" as you so well put it. If I need to focus on what I'm actually seeing I sometimes have to exert mental effort to push visualization aside, in much the same way you might push down negative thoughts to calm anxiety before e.g. public speaking. Conversely I find it very difficult to think about things which I can't visualize (but I'm good at coming up imagery to represent things). Most of my internal "dialog" is without words.
djakjxnanjak 7y ago
I’m the same way, details in my visualization only appear where my attention is directed.
- zachsnow 7y ago
  It seems to me that is how my eyesight works, too, so it’s unsurprising that’s how my mind’s “eyesight” works as well!

croddin 7y ago

All of the articles I have seen seem to focus on being able to recall imagery. Is there a similar difference in ability of recalling other senses? I can visualize in my head to some degree and I can recall sounds to some degree, but I don't think I can "smell in my head" for example.

wyldfire 7y ago

I wonder whether this condition relates at all to the theory of mind and/or empathy.

slartibardfast0 7y ago

Many interesting comments on a recent previous article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19618927 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19618927

ncmncm 7y ago

I don't doubt the experience, but the fact strikes me as impossible. Everything you "see" around you, that your eyes are not pointed directly at, right at this moment, is 100% visualized, in full perspective and living color. So, unless you have extreme tunnel vision (which does exist, but they can't drive, or read at any speed), you have excellent visualization capacity. I am forced to conclude that you have, instead, very strong suppression of non-sensory-driven visualization.

toonbit 7y ago

I wrote an article on this a while back https://medium.com/@danielwhyte/wireframes-are-a-non-inclusive-tool-why-i-avoid-using-them-19a4a5835705 https://medium.com/@danielwhyte/wireframes-are-a-non-inclusi...