Aphantasia: the blind mind or living without mental images

Aphantasia affects 3% of the population and those who suffer from it do not know what visual imagination is.. They are people who live in a formless void, in a blind mind where there are no images, faces or scenarios. These men and women do not know what it is to dream, they have never mentally escaped to a peaceful setting where they can calm their stress or where they can lose themselves in parallel universes in which the possibilities are infinite.

This condition may seem very strange to us. However, beyond the particular is the dramatic or at least the sad. People who suffer from it cannot remember what that deceased parent was like or that significant being that they have not seen for a long time.. We could say, however, that whoever was born with this peculiar characteristic cannot miss something that he has never known.

Howeverliving in a mind captive to aphantasia places them in a corner where they continually feel strange. From very early on, the child with this neurological deficiency knows that something is happening to him, because he does not know what it is to dream or have nightmares. They cannot visually remember things they have seen, that afternoon in the park, that day at the beach does not exist visually in their minds and something like that makes them strange when they notice that others can.

We are facing a reality as particular as it is interesting that is worth delving into.

Aphantasia: what is it and why does it occur?

Neurologists define aphantasia as a type of mental blindness. This term, as it could not be less, impresses us. However… What is life like for someone with this condition? Does it perhaps seem very limited? Furthermore, what is its origin? We are facing a neurological alteration that has begun to be studied more exhaustively since 2016.

We knew of its existence since 1840, when Sir Francis Galton, the renowned British psychologist, anthropologist, explorer and geneticist, described several cases, even providing a statistical analysis. Already at that time, he estimated that between 2% or 3% of the population could lack that mental eye, that ability to create mental images.

We had to wait until 2016 for the scientific community to become interested in aphantasia again., and it was done by Dr. Adam Zeman, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Exeter, who finally coined this term. That same year, Blake Ross, co-creator of Firefox, published an essay in which he described his own experience with this new neurological condition. As a result of his work, aphantasia began to go viral on social networks and attract the interest of more experts.

What is the origin of aphantasia?

Imagine two apples, one green and one bright red. When reading this, 97% of us (according to statistical data) will almost instantly visualize that image. However, those people suffering from aphantasia will be incapable of originating this neurological process because their minds do not see, because the image does not exist in their cerebral universe.

This could be due, according to researchers, to a failure to create patterns about everything we see. Thus, each visual stimulus generates an impact on our brain, an imprint that creates a type of pattern, a sequence, a shape. In this way, when we remember something, it is common for those same patterns to emerge almost instantly, generating mental images.

People with aphantasia do not create visual patterns. Everything you see or have ever seen does not generate any image in the brain. It is like suffering from partial blindness, one where our inner eyes do not capture what is outside and cannot turn it inside.

The ability to produce a mental image is complex and requires the activation of many areas in the brain. The exact neural basis of aphantasia is not well understood, but some research suggests that areas of the brain involved in visual imagery may be underactive.

Another theory that has been postulated is that people with this condition experience mental images, but cannot access them in their conscious thoughts.

What are people who suffer from this neurological condition like?

Life with aphantasia is not limited. One can relate, be autonomous in every aspect of one’s life, work and be successful like anyone else. However, these people know that something is wrong with them. What’s more, something that Adam Zeman himself points out is the positive reaction of those who, finally, receive a name and an explanation for what they have always suffered and that they don’t really know how to define.

In this way, whoever suffers from aphantasia basically experiences the inability to remember in images. They cannot conjure up faces, and that usually makes them uncomfortable. While most of us spend a good part of our time immersed in our thoughts, imagining, moving from one image to another, They can’t even dream of images.Those who suffer from this condition the most are people who suffer from acquired aphantasia. That is to say, It is very common that as a result of an accident or brain injury, they end up developing this deficitin which case, reality is more complex. On the other hand, it has been proven that this neurological deficit It is also related to prosopagnosia (difficulty recognizing faces) and also with orientation problems.

Signs of aphantasia

Finally, as of today, there is no treatment for aphantasia. While it is true that living with it does not limit basically any aspect of daily life, it is curious to know that those diagnosed say they feel different and are aware that there is something wrong and that they miss. After all, Nothing is as free and comforting as thinking, like imagining….

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