Aphantasia : Mental Blindness

The inability to visualize images in a person’s head is known as aphantasis. This term is the opposite of the fantasy that does not have an a in the beginning, which is used by Phanatsia and Aristotle to denote the power by which a mental representation is offered to a person. This concept known as Aphantasia or Afantaz; the mind’s eye is like a projector screen on which colorful events are played out as a series of still or moving representations. According to its name, this neurological condition cannot display images on their screens. It is important to know that aphantasia is not a disorder that is defined as the failure of a bodily function or a disease, a specific disease. Rather, it is a neurological defect that affects the brain without serious health risks.

Aphantasia was first suspected in 1880 by an explorer, anthropologist and eugenician Sir Francis Galton, the cousin of one of the scientists and the owner of one of the most revolutionary ideas of the 19th century. Galton has always been influenced by human intelligence and has conducted innovative experiments to realize the inner workings of complex machines based on his mind. His thought resonated with the nonsense philosophy cheerfully defended by the ultra-keen observers of the 20th century, such as Sartre and Camus. If social or cognitive science is concerned with explaining unexpected anomalies, such people have turned their methodology on their head and studied something very effortless to help represent their invisible complexity, the glaring, confused, or absurd-looking reality.

Galton conducted a survey to find out how many people have visualization skills in their minds. Surprisingly, speculation has shown that 2.5% of the British population may suffer from this condition; In other words, 1 out of 40 people could not draw a scene in their heads. However, the research was limited to statistics, not the situation itself. After sporadic psychiatric cases reporting a sudden loss of imagination after an accident, this issue has been drawn attention once again.

A New Perspective Afantaz

More focused research was conducted after a report by cognitive neurologist Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter in 2005 stating that he lost his visualization ability. The MX, which is often referred to as a hair dryer because they are on neurological accounts to hide their identity, lost their imagination after heart surgery. This ridiculous disability sparked sudden attention and helped 21 more people with the same condition hear about it when Carl Zimmer of Discover magazine wrote an article about Zeman’s article.

These people participated in an experiment with a control group. The experiment sent them through an fMRI machine to determine the mental possibilities predicting scenarios highlighted by colored patches on the x-ray brains. MX, along with other patients, showed reduced activity in the parietal and frontal lobes, which are severely associated with abstract thinking, which is extremely useful in daydreaming or imagination. The majority of lobes serve to hold memories and integrate primary visual and olfactory senses.

Objects, smells or tastes are apparently recognized from fixed memory. And similar to the add media functionality in a standard PowerPoint presentation, it is pinned to a template. In addition, the occipital and temporal lobes process this information and reflect the desired image on the screen. Since the memories of these patients are completely intact, the problem may be due to some unfortunate disconnections in these neural networks. Or worse, the wiring may not be.

Remarkably, these people live vivid images in their dreams. Zeman explains this by claiming that people with aphasia can form images, but they do not have conscious access to them due to a faulty projector. Although the participants reported that they acquired this condition at a very young age, there are those who have endured it since birth! This is known as congenital aphantasis. Fortunately, this impedance did not create a strenuous obstacle to survival.

Why Do Aphantasis Have a Better Critical Thinking Way?

It appears that the surprising efficiency of the human brain, evident in its undulating plasticity, allows the majority of its lobes used primarily for visualization to be rewired. These areas of the brain can be adjusted for sharper phenomenal memory. Patients struggled to remember faces, but performed eerily well with the facts. Patients also felt great distress when they talked about the inability to remember the faces of their loved ones, especially those who died.

Instead, their description is that it looks more analytical, including the contours or features of a person. These features are common in gifted programmers. Blake Ross, the founder of Firefox and the programmer behind the seamless user interface, is one of the best examples. Research on aphantasis is very scarce, and a cure still seems remote. Researchers are still finding its root causes, elucidating whether it is caused by genetic or psychological factors.

The ability to develop mental images is definitely useful for understanding creativity when creating mental models, reading fiction, imagining new shapes, or mentally rotating objects. It speeds up learning and improves all kinds of skill performance. Athletes and musicians report that mental rehearsals or simulating movements in their heads are as beneficial as physical activity itself. Unfortunately, someone who is an important test is also blamed for awakening completely unrelated scenarios that race uncontrollably in his mind, so it also has negative effects.

How to Live with Aphantasia?

For people with aphantasia, it can be sad not to be able to visualize people and places. For example, it can be sad not to be able to imagine the face of a deceased loved one. Current research shows that having aphantasis does not necessarily harm a person’s success in life. People from all walks of life experience this phenomenon, including successful doctoral students, engineers, and other professionals. Knowing that this is a part of human experience, it is necessary to understand that it is not a condition that requires treatment. However, that doesn’t mean it might not have an impact on different aspects of your life. Mental imagery also plays a role in learning, so being unable to visualize scenes in your mind can make some aspects of learning more difficult.

Researchers suggest that future research of the condition focuses not only on its causes and effects, but also on possible ways to improve the ability to mentally visualize. However, more research and a better understanding of the situation are needed to make such recommendations. If you suspect that you may have aphania, you should consider exploring some new memory strategies. Not being able to visualize can make some types of memorization more difficult, so it may be necessary to experiment to find a technique that works for you. Even if the person cannot visualize the scenes or people in their mind, they can use photography, illustrations, design software and other visualization tools to fill this gap.