this is Podcasts from Science, Quickly and Scientific AmericanI’m Stefano Montari.
For example, if someone asks you to imagine Harry Potter, you probably have no problem seeing him in your head. It’s his teenage wizard with black hair, glasses, a thunderbolt-shaped scar on his forehead, and a wand in his hand. It’s as if I’ve pulled a picture in his head.
This ability to visualize is often called the “mind’s eye” and most people would say it’s as inherent as breathing. Approximately 1% of the population is estimated to be in an extreme condition called aphantasia. Those who have it cannot visualize anything in their mind.
Joel Pearson: So when they try to imagine and think what an apple looks like, it’s not just… Black on Black. For example, when we think of an apple, we can catch up on the conscious experience of the apple. You can see the stem. I can see the leaves. You can see the water droplets there. I don’t have an apple in my hand, but I have experience with apples. Aphantasia people do not have that experience.
mount them. Joel Pearson is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Future Minds Lab at the University of New South Wales, Australia.. Since 2008, he has studied mental imagery and cognition, including in the context of aphantasia. One of the main problems, he says, was always finding ways to measure it accurately.
Pearson: At that time, few people were studying visual imagery. Because it was very difficult to measure. It was just a questionnaire, possibly an interview.
The problem with the questionnaire is that you and I can both imagine apples. And our images may be exactly the same. But even if I consciously experienced the exact same thing internally, I would rate it a ‘4’ and you might rate it a ‘1’. [it] as “2”. When it comes to surveys, it’s kind of a metacognitive specific problem. Much of what we do at Future Minds Lab is trying to develop new ways to measure the mind. A microscope for the heart or a blood test to measure the heart.
mount them. One of the lab experiments Investigated how a lack of mental imagery affected people’s reactions to aphantasia In a virtual stressful situation.
Pearson: We conducted another experiment. We had people walk into a dark room and read these scary stories on the screen. It turns out that people with images get this wonderful escalating response during stories when their skin conductance response is measured. Both groups are elevated when a scary image is displayed on the screen for both. For words on screen, the role of mental imagery is distinctly different.
mount them. Based on this study, Pearson and his team recruited people with syncope from the Sydney area of Australia. Please come to the lab for another experiment. This time, we asked the participants to imagine a dark one, then a bright one.
Pearson: Just like when I look up at a light, your pupils constrict when you imagine something bright. Aphantasia makes no real difference.
mount them. Anyone who can volunteer for this kind of experiment must first recognize that they are dyslexic. But how do you know you can’t visualize when you don’t even know that others can?
Pearson: The teacher says, “Now, imagine this, imagine that.” what do they mean? I can’t imagine it. ’ I compare it to people discovering they are colorblind. They don’t know what they’re missing until someone somehow describes a vivid experience of color.
mount them. But the good news is that there are a lot of creative people who are thriving with this condition.co-founder of Pixar Ed Catmull is 1. Glen Keane is a character animator on films such as . little mermaid and beauty and the beast, is another. So, is there a relationship between image, aphantasia and creativity?
Pearson: I get a lot of emails from people. So I’m not creative. ” There seems to be no obstacles there. In fact, we’re currently doing research on creativity here at Future Minds, and the data doesn’t support differences in creativity measures among people with aphantasia. tend to be Aphantasia should have a lack of creativity. Data does not support it so far.
mount them. Living without mental imagery may seem like a disadvantage, but Pearson says there are benefits, especially for those with anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Pearson: All the data we have so far suggests that the more vivid your images are, the more likely you are to develop PTSD after trauma. A few things have already pointed out the fact that without an image, it becomes a thing and not what it is.
mount them. But what about good memories? do they stick around? Pearson says yes in another way.
Pearson: As such, it can incorporate different semantics, ideas, concepts, spatial locations, emotions, and sometimes different sensations. So let’s blind all the senses, because we can decompose aphantasia into multisensory aphantasia. So when there is aphantasia, people have fewer details of their lifetime memories, but they are still there. Their memory is not lost. they just take a different format.
mount them. Thank you for listening.for Scientific American60 Second Science, I’m Stefano Montari.
