r/science • u/unsw UNSW Sydney • Jan 11 '25

Health People with aphantasia still activate their visual cortex when trying to conjure an image in their mind’s eye, but the images produced are too weak or distorted to become conscious to the individual

https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2025/01/mind-blindness-decoded-people-who-cant-see-with-their-minds-eye-still-activate-their-visual-cortex-study-finds?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social
9.3k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/alicat2308 Jan 11 '25

I'm not sure I have complete aphantasia because every so often a particularly evocative description will pop an image like a damn firework in my head, it just doesn't happen a lot and I don't have the brain movie.

I do enjoy reading. I love it. I get all the emotional involvement, it just doesn't need to be visual. I'm not sure I can explain it that well.

7

u/halapenyoharry Jan 11 '25

I've read it's a spectrum which makes sense.

3

u/SirWilliamWaller Jan 11 '25

This is how I understand it to be. I like to use the analogy of Wikipedia pages. Most people in the middle of the Phantasia spectrum get pages with the data and pictures, whilst those who have Aphantasia only have articles with written data. People with Hyperphantasia effectiveky live in Wiki Commons and apparently can struggle to tell the difference between what is in their head and what is outside of it.

2

u/stormchaser9876 Jan 11 '25

If you can’t voluntarily draw up images in your mind, you have aphantasia.