Aphantasia: The Mind's Eye

Have you ever tried to recall a memory of a person or place and couldn't form the image in your mind? People with Aphantasia experience that every day. Aphantasics struggle to formulate any mental images of familiar places - trees, grass, flowers- or family members. In a 2012 study conducted on people with this phenomenon, participants in the study were asked questions like which is a lighter color of green—grass or pine trees—most people would decide by imagining both grass and tree and comparing them. The Aphantasics in the study, however, used no visual imagery to make the decision. They claimed, "they just knew the answer" but couldn't visualize what either object looked like.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed why these participants could not visualize memories. Generally, when people are asked to picture a person, place or object, a network consisting of various brain regions is activated. Some of them are involved in decision-making, others in memory or vision. In the Aphantasics, the visual regions showed very little activity, whereas those responsible for decision making and error prediction were more active. The finding suggests that people with Aphantasia have greater acuity and reasoning skills in the absence of mental visual fucntion. Aphantasia is not as uncommon as one may think. In 2010 after the study was published, numerous people came forward all saying they too could not form mental images. Not everyone has the Brain's eye. Those who came forward were then contacted in 2015 and asked to fill out a 10-page questionnaire. All participants unanimously said they realized only in adolescence and early adulthood (through conversations or reading) that other people could call up images in their mind, and that they could not. What was interesting was that 90% of the participants claimed they have dreams like everyone else and have instances of visual imagery, but that their mental-visual recall is not on command. Supporting studies on Aphantasia in recent years have begun to examine the other side of mental visibility, examine those with above-average ability to conjure vivid memories. This phenomenon is where scientists believe the term "photogenic memory" comes from. People with this advanced ability to picture memories are considered to have "hyperphantasia" within the science community. Many people with hyperphantasia have reported that they easily lose themselves in daydreams about the past or the future.

Scientists have barely uncovered the mysteries of this condition. There is still much to know. Scientists, as of recent, are trying to teach people with aphantasia how to visualize. In fact, some studies have tried using hallucinogenics to "cure aphantasia" and jumpstart the mind's eye.