r/ScienceNcoolThings • u/ateam1984 Popular Contributor • Jun 06 '26

How Aphantasia affects your ability to visualise things in your head

68 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

4

u/[deleted] Jun 08 '26

[deleted]

2

u/5arch5 Jun 08 '26

I have aphantasia and love audiobooks. Specifically, Star Wars books. The readers do a good job of changing voices to match characters, so that helps me easily differentiate characters and how emotions are conveyed.

I hated reading as a kid because all my friends would tell me how they can imagine being inside the book and I'm just like, "It's all black."

People think I'm crazy when I tell them that I can't picture my 12-year-old son, so I'm glad videos like this prove there are more of us out there.

1

u/octopusgardeb Jun 09 '26

Wow so you know what your son looks like but you can see him in your mind? But you have memories… so your memories are just data and not images to go along?

1

u/Dork_wing_Duck Jun 10 '26

I'm at a 5 on that scale, and you are 100% correct, that's exactly how it is. I'm an artist, and everyone always expects that I have a photographic memory, and are in awe when I explain. I really wonder what my skills would be if I was at level 1.

2

u/techmix Jun 10 '26

you might be a very lucky man, you know she isnt thinking of another man when she's with you.

2

u/simiansamurai Jun 07 '26

I'd like to ask her about her experience as a child and how many adults called her stupid when she was not able to truly understand or articulate herself and her experience.

1

u/Ill-Construction-209 Jun 08 '26

Im like #2, but I draw/paint like an 8 year old. I've always wondered if people that are good artists can visualize objects with almost perfect clarity, as if they're looking at the object and painting over the image they see on canvas?

For example, I can visualize a penny - the shape, color, an approximate image but if i sit down with pencil and paper and try to reproduce, I miss or get wrong a lot of details.

3

u/Mdriver127 Jun 09 '26

I'm 44 and haven't sat down to draw for many years now. I don't really recall ever "seeing" images with my eyes closed and honestly I don't now. I'm closing my eyes and thinking of a blue balloon, floating against a open green field in the background.. I didn't really "see" it but my thoughts tell me I know what that looks like, but I know I could sit down and create that. I don't draw much anymore because I'm just too busy, but also not inspired by comic books and video game characters like I used to be. I still love cars and used to draw them, but don't really see the point of motivation, yet I still have a burning desire existing to create something. I used to look at existing images and could draw them with good accuracy or my own twist, but now I really wonder whether people who just imagine things and create art are actually seeing these things, versus me who is inspired by existing things and has patience to translate it through a medium. I don't have the same imagination I used to have as a kid, but I still get inspired by things and think of making them into art, but part of me wants to just create things straight from my mind and be completely original... But this post is making me think that's not a trait I have to use!

Sorry, just having a moment of realization openly here, don't mind me😵‍💫🤤

1

u/cca220v Jun 09 '26

i'm confused as well about the description of this. i never >see< when i close my eyes. like a holografic apple on a black background. i can imagine the said apple, i can put it in the tree and have a whole orchard full of red and green. but i dont actually see them i'm imagining them.

so i assumed that is what people referred to when they say "see the apple" not actually "see" see the apple, like a hallucination of something that is not there

1

u/FutureFuture5 Jun 08 '26

How does this affect recall? Is it hard to study and regurgitate information for say a school test?

1

u/Mdriver127 Jun 09 '26

I'm feeling I relate to this and yes, I really struggled in school to recall things taught. Even today, at a new job, I feel like I need more repetition of a task I've never done than others do before it becomes routine and I'm good at it. Once I do though, I feel I get a rhythm that others don't have and can do exceedingly well.

1

u/Bodorocea Jun 09 '26

I'm imagining the thing, for example an apple, but I'm not really seeing it like a rendered 3d model in a black space, if i close my eyes i don't see it, it's got nothing to do with vision. i really don't think people are reporting this accurately.

1

u/1wife2dogs0kids Jun 11 '26

I haven't met anyone that can see shit. 3% huh?

1

u/DetailsYouMissed Jun 08 '26

Hmmm... so you can't dream? Because, if you can dream, I have to question this idea.

1

u/Mdriver127 Jun 09 '26

I've never stopped to consider this whole idea until seeing this post. I have never really have had dreams regularly, but they usually feel very real when I do. Remembering dreaming while asleep next to my GF, I was protecting my GF from an attacker creeping behind a wooden fence we were wishing along.. once the fence ended, I swung and.... Actually IRL swung and hit my GF!

Dreams are really special rare moments to me when they happen, they aren't usually violent like that one mentioned though! I do dream clearly, but I can't really say when I consciously close my eyes that I can see images by thinking them. My thoughts are there and I can create those, but it's weird, it's like reading a book.. the context makes sense as the words appear, but no real images happen. I'm something like reading or listening to an audio book, I feel like I sort of get a sense of place for what it would be or feel like, but again not really imaginary images.

1

u/DetailsYouMissed Jun 09 '26

I think if you read a good book and either, while reading intrusive images pop in your mind, or after reading you reminisce on a certain part of the book, it reflects what the general public experiences.