Aphantasia Experiences: The Difficulty of Imagining My Children
The inability to visualize mental images, known as aphantasia, affects a small percentage of the population, estimated at around 1% for extreme cases and up to 6% for varying degrees of the condition. Aphantasia does not imply a lack of imagination but can manifest in difficulties recognizing faces, recalling sounds or tactile sensations, and visualizing memories or imaginary scenarios.
Individuals with aphantasia, like Mary Wathen, experience the world without mental images, relying instead on verbal communication and emotional intuition. Mary, a lawyer, describes her inability to conjure mental images as “mind-blowing,” as she cannot visualize significant life events or even the faces of her loved ones.
This condition was first identified nearly a decade ago by Prof Adam Zeman, who also discovered its counterpart, hyperphantasia, where individuals experience highly vivid mental imagery. While aphantasics struggle to visualize, hyperphantasics may find it difficult to discern between real and imagined images. These extremes in mental imagery are thought to arise from differences in brain connectivity and processing.
Despite its challenges, aphantasia can have benefits, such as promoting living in the moment and reducing anxiety about future events. Interestingly, some aphantasic individuals, including artists, find creative outlets by translating their experiences into tangible forms, using external mediums like canvas to express their inner worlds.
Conversely, hyperphantasic individuals like artist Geraldine van Heemstra experience rich and vivid mental imagery, associating colors with letters, numbers, and even musical notes. For Geraldine, her vibrant inner world translates into her art, where she can vividly recall landscapes and experiences to create immersive paintings.
Research suggests that aphantasia may have genetic components and runs in families, with siblings of aphantasics being more likely to experience the condition. While much remains to be understood about aphantasia and hyperphantasia, these conditions highlight the diversity of human cognition and inner experiences.
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