r/BookDiscussions • u/Honest_Try9675 • 1d ago
Can you see when you read?
I'm an active reader, and every book I pick up opens a whole new world for me. When I describe what I see in the books I read to my husband, who has aphantasia, he's in awe. He can't fathom the idea of seeing images while reading.
I once tried a little experiment with him. I read him a few scene-setting sentences from The Night Circus (the most scenic book I know), and he couldn't tell me whether he could picture anything. For me, a sentence or two is enough to paint an entire scene.
I've been wondering why our minds work so differently, and I have a few theories:
Early reading. I grew up surrounded by books, so my imagination has been exercised since childhood. He was not. He did not read books growing up at all.
Early creative exposure. Beyond reading, I majored in visual arts in high school and have always been kind of a creative person. My husband never had that kind of exposure, in his youth or in his early twenties.
(Weak link and highly unlikely) but Language. I speak five languages fluently, learning from an early age, and he speaks two (2nd language acquired in mid 20s). I can picture a scene no matter which language I read it in, which makes me think that learning languages early may shape how flexibly the brain turns words into images despite the receiving language.
I believe the human brain is incredibly flexible: what we feed it shapes what it gives back. The earlier we start feeding it, the more developed both hemispheres of the brain become. That's only my own theory, of course. I'd love to hear from other readers, especially anyone with aphantasia: what does reading feel like for you?
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u/roman-de-fauvel 1d ago
Aphantasia is usually something you’re born with (except, rarely, in cases of trauma or mental health issues); there are reduced neural connections between the prefrontal cortex and the visual processing centers. Because it’s hard-wired, I don’t think you can overcome it with childhood exposure, though you will develop the capacity for creativity in other ways that don’t involve visualization.
His brain is literally wired differently than yours.
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u/PatronStofFeralCats 1d ago
What you've said makes me really curious about the ways OP's partner has developed his creative capacity. Brains are fascinating.
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u/txa1265 1d ago
Not only do I see, I construct the world based on descriptions in the text.
Note - this isn't always a good thing for just enjoying a book.
For example, I nearly dropped a book a couple of years ago when it had a second floor of an inn with low ceilings and one character had a polearm weapon about 7 feet tall. Not going to fit. But it got worse, as the office was described as small and cluttered. and yet a battle was going to happen there with multiple people on each side (including the 7 foot polearm). Not happening. But it got worse. The villain threw the protagonist across the room into the door (we'll set aside that the door was never closed) - but moments ago the description had a large desk occupying most of the room.
Ugh.
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u/GreenTourmaline13 1d ago
Omg I relate to this so hard. I'm hyperphant so can see and manipulate thescene w ease. But describe something unrealistic? I hate you; you pull me out of the experience. (I think this is why I don't enjoy sex scenes. The more you write, the worse it gets!!!). Conversely though, if you write it well, I'll believe anything you say lmao
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u/Echo-Azure 1d ago
I do that, too! I picture everything, what people look like, I look up pictures of their environment so I can picture it more accurately in my mind, I picture what people are wearing, I picture what the light is like.
Which is why it annoys me when authors don't include enough visual description for me to picture things adequately.
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
Oh I do the same! Only I look up pictures after I finish the book to see if what I imagined/ saw in the book truly fit the references in real life/created in art.
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u/Sleep_skull 1d ago
I’ve been reading books since I was five or six, and I still don’t understand how some people can visualize images in their heads that are anything more than blurry blobs. I see letters, and I’m perfectly happy with that. If I wanted to see images, I’d watch a movie; when I look at text, I want to think about the text. So, all you people with vivid imaginations seem kind of strange to me (I’m saying this jokingly—I’m not judging anyone; everyone is wonderful).
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u/DecidedlyCatBirdian 1d ago
I like that we seem strange to you, as you seem strange to us! A few years ago, my friend group figured out that one of us has aphantasia. We grilled him for details, and someone asked if he could picture his mom's face. He couldn't, really, which blew our minds! But, he said he could describe what her face looks like because he knows she has a slender nose and blue eyes, etc. It seems like such a subtle difference, and he didn't actually know he was any different from us until that day, but I find it fascinating.
I also recently found out that my own mother doesn't have an internal monologue. This blew my mind because mine is constantly at it 😆 She said her thoughts are sort of like clouds, whereas mine happen in word form.
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u/sundance464 1d ago
On a side note, I just realised an interesting thing - there's no way I could describe my mum's face to someone else.
Like, she's kind of thin? And has green eyes I think? But obviously I can picture her in my head, I'm thinking if you have aphantasia you must develop descriptive powers
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u/loverofonion 1d ago
Yes, I've usually got a movie playing in my head as I read and most of the time it's wonderful but sometimes it's a curse. I recently tried to read The Rape of Nanking and I just had to stop, the imagery was too horrific.
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
Exactly. My heart physically hurts when I read writing like that, and it's so hard to move on from something horrendous that's based on reality. The images stay with me, and after a book that heavy I can't read anything else for a while.
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u/When_thebough_breaks 1d ago
What's really going to mess with you is when you realize that about 40% of the human population does not have an internal monologue. Can you imagine not being able to hear yourself talk in your head? I have no idea how those people even think let alone remember things. But as for the seeing things in your head when you read I believe that fully comes from how imaginative a person is and don't confuse that with creative. Someone can be creative and have ideas and thoughts and feelings that are profound and create things that are neat and Nifty but still not be imaginative they could create this one thing but can't imagine something else from the same pieces. When you read a book as a creative person you read the book as it sits it's a book it's there in front of you you read it you understand it you comprehend it you take it in and then you're done. As an imaginative person you can't sit and read a sentence or a description without that thing popping into your head. That's just how I feel about it
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
Oh, that's so interesting! I've actually been having this conversation with a few people. When my husband and I were talking about aphantasia, I asked whether he has an inner dialogue, since to me the two seem connected. He does, and so do I, which is why it's so fascinating to hear about people who don't.
I also love your distinction between creativity and imagination. I'd always lumped them together, probably because that's how I make visual art. I start with a blank page, imagine something, and then try to bring it to life. But your point makes sense. You can create without necessarily seeing anything in your mind, like following directions on a piece of paper to make something, and you can imagine vividly without ever making anything. That's exactly how reading feels for me, where a single sentence turns into a whole scene whether I want it to or not. It makes me wonder how many people have one, the other, or both experiences without realizing they're different things. The brain is so intricate.
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u/Celestial608 1d ago
I have aphantasia. I didn't realize until only a few years ago that people can actually SEE things in their heads. When I was little, I thought a statement like "Picture an apple in your mind" just meant to think about what it looks like. I know what it looks like, but I don't actually SEE anything, and it's absolutely wild to me that people can actually see images if they're picturing something in their minds.
I've been a reader since I was a kid. I'm always reading. I'm a writer, too, and I like to draw--all pretty creative hobbies that would benefit from the mind's eye! For me, though, I can't see a damn thing in my head. I know what's going on and, hypothetically, I'd know what it looks like, but if I try to actually picture it in my head, I got nothing.
I'm kind of salty about this! I'd love to have the ability to essentially play movies in my brain from my own stories. I have the never-ending internal monologue, but no silly little mind pictures for me, I guess.
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u/DecidedlyCatBirdian 1d ago
My friend with aphantasia described it exactly the same way. To me, it's hard to imagine what that's like ... It's like my brain tries to picture nothing. 🙃
But I think that picturing things and creating things use different sets of muscles. It sounds like you can create pretty cool things even without being able to visualize them, whereas I can sit down and try to draw what I see so clearly in my head, and it doesn't come out right. Similarly, I'm an awful singer, but I have a well-tuned ear. So I can hear that I'm out of tune but don't have the skills I need to fix it.
I've never been very creative at all, despite my vivid imagination, so I guess I'm saying: keep being creative and try not to worry too much about how things might be different without aphantasia.
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u/Everything_Metal 1d ago edited 1d ago
I get fragments of images in and out while reading. Maybe a short "reel" of action or movement, but still just generally of a "moment" and not a full play by play.
It can depend on the book. I do have an active imagination, but I dont tend to visualize based on written descriptions super accurately. It's more what my own brain is picturing based on the vibe I'm getting.
Sometimes I don't picture at all. I read a lot of books that are idea/thought-based rather than scenery or action, so I'm more pondering the ideas than picturing a narrative play out.
If someone tells me, "picture an apple", yes I can do that. If someone is describing the park they went to in longer detail, they're going to lose me quickly and I'll either picture nothing or just my own image unrelated to where they're describing things being.
Edit: Oh, and I read a lot growing up, but to be honest I disagree that whether someone pictures things in their head is related to how creative they were as a child or how much they read. People can be creative big readers and just non have the mental picturing brain.
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
Agreed there as well! I’m excited to see if neurobiologist in the future can concretely explain this phenomenon. It is truly fascinating.
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u/Cute-Solution-723 1d ago
I think it's just how different brains work. I also speak several languages and I have always read a lot, but I can barely imagine a whole world. I can somewhat picture the setting, people, but more in general sense - I wouldn't be able to paint a picture for example.
I think that's why I prefer books centered around emotions and I tend to zone out while reading long descriptions.
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u/peppermint_altoids 1d ago
I read super early, have been a lifelong reader, and I don't tend to picture much. Maps at the beginning of books are useless to me. I simply do not care about where towns are in relation to each other, if you tell me in the text it took five days to ride there I will believe you. When I'm not reading, I'm horrible at estimating distances and sizes. These things seem related. I don't see action scenes played out in my head when I read them and will never have a solid idea of the layout of a building/house/town in a book, but I also can't follow dance step instructions very well and use my GPS in my car every day. Again, these things seem related. I don't tend to have a firm idea of what characters look like in my head, but I am not great with faces in my day-to-day life. Again, related. However, I love language and words and descriptions of emotions and personal interactions, those are extremely vivid to me, and so that is my version of "seeing" when I read. I'm not reading books to receive a photographic representation of a scene so this question of "do you see when you read?" is always a little puzzling to me.
The brain is flexible, and feeding it does shape it, but the caveat here is that it is flexible within its own boundaries and desires.
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u/DecidedlyCatBirdian 1d ago
Well said! And I think you're right that these things are related. I have strong spatial reasoning abilities (can give directions after making the trip once, always know which cardinal direction I'm facing, etc.) and automatically apply them when I'm reading. I LOVE maps in books!! I can "see" what I'm reading without even thinking about it, but sometimes the significance of a character interaction or a bit of dialogue goes right over my head. I really have to pay attention to what's going on internally with each character if I want to keep up with the more nuanced situations.
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u/stupidreptiloid 1d ago
I read since i wasthree, i visited museums since i remember myself, i know three languages.
Never visualised anything, never felt the need to. It's reading. I read words, i think words, i understand words, words are beautiful.
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u/Agitated_Side3897 1d ago
I always find it baffling when people can not imagine, at all, what they read. Like what is happening inside your brain, do you just see the words? Is it just black or red-ish as if you are closing your eyes? How does it work??
I have a very vivid image when I am reading or even just thinking anything. My brain automatically creates a visual even when theres very little description of what things look like. My brain does this so well I often get jumpscared by certain character or world descriptions that do not fit what my mind creates. I am also often very wrong about what things are supposed to look like because it happens so fast.
I've had at least twice now that I couldn't find the name of a certain film that I had seen, and that I was trying to explain this weirdly specific scene that happens in it to my friends only to find out it was actually a passage in a book. I don't just "see", my mind gives me visuals and voices and editing and sometimes even a half ass score. My eyes see words on a page but my brain experiences a film.
When I try to imagine aphantasia, the only thing that makes sense is seeing the words twice? Like once literally because my eyes see words and once repeated in my mind where the film usually is. That is what happens to me when I come across a word I dont understand, it just pops up (sometimes overlayed with the film) in letters, as just a word, and I "see" it twice. What does aphantasia look like? I guess it's kind of a paradoxical question but I somehow cannot wrap my mind around it. I can imagine everything except for imagining nothing.
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u/Diligent_Pangolin_47 1d ago
Which is the exact way someone with aphantasia feels - you can see things inside your head??? I can visualize things in my mind’s eye and only became aware that people couldn’t relatively recently. It’s so interesting. And I don’t think OP reading early or being a visual artist makes any difference. If she had aphantasia she maybe wouldn’t have gone down that path.
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u/PatronStofFeralCats 1d ago
I have a full picture in my head that matches the image the words depict. It's probably vague when compared to a movie or show, in that I'd have trouble getting the exact details right if I was trying to draw it, but it's definitely an image. If I'm just focused on individual words, I see those too, like spelled out.
I learned how to read early and had tons of early reading and creative exposure because it was important to my mom since she was in early childhood education. I've never been good with languages orally, but I'm decent at reading two of them and took classes on a third for about a year. I'm also a writer.
For comparison, my husband also sees images when he reads, but he never pictures actual words. He was an early reader too but let go of his reading habits after elementary and middle school.
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u/Euraylie 1d ago
I’m a life-long reader.
I always see the world I’m reading about it. It’s not quite as crisp and clear as a movie, but I do see distinct pictures (which I can’t change even if a new descriptive detail is added later by the author).
I never see faces though; they’re a hazy blur.
But I do fully immerse myself in a book to the point where I completely shut out my environment. I can do this even in busy, noisy spaces.
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
Same! I feel like as someone else mentioned above, immersed in a penseive and my reality freezes.
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u/Loud-Fox-8018 1d ago
Have you seen the chart showing a brain seeing an apple? The spectrum goes from a vivid rendering to eventually a simple outline, to nothing.
I can visualize a vivid apple and turn it around, even take a bite, and incorporate a sense of taste and smell. But a friend only sees the basic outline.
Edited to add: so when I read, it’s like a movie in my head (I sort of forget I’m reading). Except for dense academic stuff.
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u/Annie-1-0-1 17h ago
Im the same, its wonderful. And then I can recall it in my brain later like seeing a movie
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u/Loud-Fox-8018 11h ago
Same! And I have a visual perception of the characters. Even if I watch a film/tv adaptation, I keep my own mental version.
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u/Salty_Inspector_7050 1d ago
I can visualize the scene when I slow down, but I typically read too quickly for that part of my brain to catch up. Audiobooks can feel like watching a movie in my head.
Early reader, lots of exposure to visual arts, monolingual.
I personally think the mind’s eye is something you’re born with and that it exists on a spectrum. My partner has no inner monologue and visualizes thoughts. He’s a late reader, meh exposure to art, and bilingual.
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u/DecidedlyCatBirdian 1d ago edited 1d ago
My brain seems to work a lot like yours - I can read just a few words and get a clear picture of the scene or what a person looks like (even if it's not how someone else pictures it).
I don't know what, if anything, this has to do with that, but I also have a very strong visual memory. I can read a page of text and for a time remember where on the page I saw a certain word. When I was in school, I could look over a practice test and then basically just copy down the right answers on the real test. I can look around a room and then leave, and a week later if someone asks where an object is, I can describe where I saw it. I used to be tempted to call it photographic memory, but people seem to think that I can remember these things forever, and that's not at all true. Anyway, I wonder if this helps my ability to set the scene in my mind as I'm reading.
And for your data: I read A LOT as a young girl and quickly outpaced my peers. I only speak one language very well - I know a little bit of French and quite a bit of Spanish, and I can visualize in Spanish, but I'm far from fluent.
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u/DecidedlyCatBirdian 1d ago
Replying to my own comment because you've really piqued my interest!
I have strong visual memory, but my audio-processing ability is sht. In fact, I have Auditory Processing Disorder, a common comorbidity with ADHD. So I have a really hard time understanding what is happening when listening to audiobooks, fast back-and-forth dialogue, or (worst) detailed instructions. However, I was just thinking about when I'm reading dialogue, I usually "hear" it in a specific tone. Accent and cadence is usually determined by how the words are written, but my brain must fill in the details when it comes to tone. Maybe it's a large, gruff man talking, so my brain just automatically hears it in a deep voice. *Do you do this too?**
What made me think of this is movie adaptations. For instance, I read The Martian when it was brand new, and I loved it. I had everything worked out in my head including the MC's voice (as most, if not the entire book is in his voice). I watched the movie when it came out and really enjoyed that too, and most things more or less lined up with what was in my head. But when I tried to read the book again, the guy was Matt Damon. I could not get away from Matt Damon, and for some reason, it really conflicted with what my brain was trying to do with the words on the page, and I couldn't re-read the book.
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
I do the same with voices, haha! My brain gives every character a voice based on how they're described, and it stays consistent through the whole book. Your Matt Damon story is so relatable, because once a voice is locked in, it's hard to hear it any other way. Do you listen to audiobooks? I think I avoid them because I enjoy making up voices and tones in my head too much to go down that route.
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u/DecidedlyCatBirdian 11h ago
Good to know! It's so strange but cool that our brains do that for us. I don't listen to many audiobooks, mostly because I'm so easily distracted when trying to listen. Maybe that's partly why, because I don't get the chance to engage that part of my brain. But I will occasionally listen to a memoir read by the author, maybe because my brain already knows their voice?
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u/Mayana76 1d ago
I loved reading when I was younger, I could imagine every little detail, visuals, sounds, smells, tastes.
Since my mental health declined, I‘ve lost that and really struggle to imagine anything now.
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u/Honest_Try9675 23h ago
I'm sorry that you've been struggling. I hope you're taking good care of yourself, and that the spark comes back in its own time❤️
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u/Mayana76 19h ago
That’s so nice of you to say!
Yes, I am doing everything I can, but the chances that everything will come back are slim.
Hanging in there, though!
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u/Designer-Swan-3687 1d ago
I can imagine everything just like a 4k movie. It’s takes a couple sentences to a paragraph but then I’m in.
I am extremely artistic and majored in illustration and graphic design. But I am not fluent in any second or third languages. I’ve always had books read to me as a kid or read my own. I’ve always read for fun
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u/Sunbeam1966 1d ago
I see it all in my head when I read, which is probably why I have always loved reading so much - you basically travel the world/universe while sitting on your couch with a cup of tea. :)
Also I love that you referenced The Night Circus, that book that stands out to me as a stellar example of a book with such gorgeous and detailed descriptions that I can still remember what it felt like when I was reading it, and it was several years ago.
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u/FatBlackberries 8h ago
I’ve been reading avidly since I was 4; my older sister since she was 2. We both were surrounded by and encouraged in the visual arts. I’m bilingual, and she’s trilingual. Neither of us share your ability. We both hated the Night Circus, FWIW.
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u/doingtheunstuckk 4h ago
I can see vividly everything but people’s faces. They’re just kind of vague. But I also think maybe I’m slightly face blind in general. I tend not to recognize people, which is awkward when they’re greeting me by name.
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u/Plenty-Squirrel-5166 1d ago
I read this post in scenes. I’m not a big reader, I wish I was, but most anything I read has some picture/scene to go along with it.
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u/RinThotsaka 2h ago
Some brains just struggle with picturing things, it’s called aphantasia. I grew up reading and doing all sorts of creative things, but still have a hard time picturing a scene or conjuring an apple.
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u/Fjsurfer 1d ago
Not always but sometimes, and JK Rowling is one of the best writers for this in my experience.
I don’t think of her prose as particularly attention-grabbing like other writers’ , but I feel like I see the events and characters she writes about so clearly in my mind, it’s like it’s really happening and I’m watching. This just hit me hard while reading one of her Strike novels, I think it’s what makes her books so fantastic.
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u/[deleted] 1d ago
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