![]() ![]() assessed visual memory of participants with aphantasia, hypephantasia, and those with medium imagery. Aphantasics, on the other hand, had a lower ability to recognise faces.Ī separate study published in CORTEX earlier this year explained more about the impact of varying visual memory - and how people recall details of an object if they can’t see it in their minds. In terms of memory, Professor Zeman and the team found that people with hyperphantasia produce richer descriptions of imagined scenarios or even personal details. Aphantasics tended to be more introverted and hyperphantasics more open but there is varying research on this. The study also coupled brain scans with personality tests. The researchers undertook brain imaging among people with aphantasia, hyperphantasia, and people with mid-range imagery vividness - while they were relaxing and “mind wandering.” Aphantasia is estimated to be experienced by 2% to 5% of the population. “Our research indicates for the first time that a weaker connection between the parts of the brain responsible for vision and frontal regions involved in decision-making and attention leads to aphantasia,” Professor Adam Zeman one of the authors from the University of Exeter in the U.K., said in a press release. People who have a robust visual imagination - “hyperphantasics” - have a stronger connection in their brains between the visual network, which processes what we see, and the prefrontal cortex, involved in cognitive abilities, decision making, and attention. Due to this strong connection, the visual networks become active and influence our visual imagination.įor people with aphantasia, the opposite happens. Other studies have also shown its relationship to creativity. Further, imagining things visually is also known to influence perception and emotion. ![]() “For many, visual imagery is intrinsic to how they think, remember past events, and plan for the future – a process they engage in and experience without actively trying to,” Zoë Pounder, a researcher of visual imagery who was not part of this study, wrote in The Conversation. The research, published in Cerebral Cortex Communications, focuses on the neurological factors behind this formation of mental images and also explores the implications on memory and personality. Phantasia means “imagination” in Greek, leading to the term “aphantasia” and its polar opposite “hyperphantasia,” where people have extremely vivid mental imagery. The mind’s eye, people noted, doesn’t always work.Ĭalled “aphantasia,” the experience of being unable to form visual images is explained in a new study. I can list the right dimensions, where light hits, the stalk length, the vibrant color, the unique markings, but there is absolutely no way I could see what I describe in my mind,” one person said. “I see nothing in my mind… I can tell you exactly what an apple is meant to look like. More recently, an internet challenge asked people to picture an apple, renewing discussion around this human experience. The failure to recall the wooden structure, texture, and height inspired a pursuit to understand the mystery of mental imagery. It was first referenced by British naturalist Francis Galton, who, in 1880, asked 100 people to draw the image of a table they had breakfast on everyday. The mystery of why some people “see” things visually and some don’t has endured centuries.
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