The Finnish Yule tells about aphantasia - the inability to mentally reproduce visual images, as well as smells, tastes and sensations. How do people with such a feature live? How do they think and fantasize? They find it difficult to remember the pleasant moments of life, but they are not susceptible to PTSD. And the world in the head of the “mentally blind” appears in the form of letters or numbers.
Can you bring up the image of a loved one in your thoughts? And imagine the scarlet sunset sky? Most of us, of course, will answer yes, but there are people who have never seen a mental image in their life. Many of them do not even suspect that this is possible. This unusual property is called aphantasia.
Bewilderment and doubt is what physicist Teppo Mattsson felt when he first read in 2015 that some people are unable to mentally reproduce visual images.
By coincidence, British scientists stumbled upon a whole group of people who call themselves mentally blind. They have no visual memories, and they cannot mentally imagine anything. This little-studied phenomenon did not even have a name. The new term was taken from the Greek language - "aphantasia". According to preliminary estimates, this feature occurs in about 2% of the world's population.
Elusive image
Mattsson was confused not by the scientific discovery itself, but by the following conclusion from it. In the description, he recognized himself and realized that most people, it turns out, are capable of mentally presenting something, seeing visual images that are not related to objective reality. And he couldn't believe it.
“I am so used to my own perception of the world and memory. And then it was as if they discovered a new feeling that I myself have never experienced."
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In his blog, which he maintains in the online version of the Finnish popular science magazine Tiede, Mattsson wrote: “A man very recklessly believes that all people are like him. I myself was so deceived."
And those who are used to seeing mental images are surprised how one can not be aware of aphantasia. Images appear in the head all the time: when a person speaks, listens, studies, comes up with. Mattsson has always freely used phrases like "see with the inner eye", believing that these are just figures of speech.
People with aphantasia often mention that learning about the ability of others to mentally create images was like a bolt from the blue for them. Many people learn about this feature of theirs only by reading about it. One of the creators of the Firefox browser, Blake Ross, has published a post about his experience with aphantasy, which is more like a science fiction story.
How is it to think without images? After all, for those who are used to them, images seem to be an integral part of consciousness.
"I think through language or mathematically, through numbers, for example."
As a physicist, Mattsson has a good set of thinking tools. Helps him, including motor skills. For example, the image of a fish is formed if he imagines that he is drawing it. The fingertips can slide in the air to simulate the movement of a pencil.
He refused to try to imagine anything, because they bring nothing but disappointment.
“When I try to mentally imagine something, the sensations are the same as when the word spins on the tongue, but I can't remember it,” Mattsson shares his observations. “I know perfectly well the features of my daughter’s face, but I don’t see her image.”
Although research interest in the absence of mental images has increased in recent years, the phenomenon has been known before. Charles Darwin's cousin Francis Galton, known, among other things, as the founder of eugenics, described it as early as 1883. This feature was revealed as a result of the surveys that Galton conducted to study arbitrary mental images.
Modern research begins in 2005, when a 65-year-old man with an unusual pathology was sent to the neurologist Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter: he lost the ability to create mental images after heart surgery. Apparently, during the operation, he had a slight violation of cerebral circulation.
When a man was shown images of famous people, the same areas in his brain were activated, as is usually the case with face recognition. Thus, his observation ability worked flawlessly. Then he was asked to imagine the previously seen faces mentally.
In the brain of an ordinary person, when mentally creating images, the same zones are activated as in direct visual perception, but the encephalogram showed that this did not happen in a man. That is, his brain could not intentionally reproduce the neural trace corresponding to the images he saw. At the same time, however, he could describe the features of the face he saw as if he saw it with his inner gaze.
With aphantasia, it is typical that there is information, but it does not form an integral visual image, even when it comes to the appearance of family members. Although Mattsson cannot mentally imagine his daughter's face, in words he paints a detailed and warm portrait: “The daughter has beautiful big eyes, curly hair, a charming smile and chubby cheeks that are so pleasant to stroke. I remember that, and when I think about her, my soul becomes warm, but I do not see her image."
After the publication of the results of the study, Zeman began to receive messages from people who said that the phenomenon he described applies to them, but with the difference that they never saw mental images. For the researchers, the information that aphantasia may be innate came as a complete surprise.
About twenty of those who turned to Zeman became participants in his next study. Many of them managed to cope with tasks that were supposed to require visualization ability. For example, most were able to mentally count how many windows they had in their house.
The brain processes visual information in different ways
According to Zeman's assumption, aphantasia occurs in 2% of the world's population, and this is a very large figure. But neuroscientist Joel Pearson of Australia's University of New South Wales went even further in his assessments. In his opinion, the prevalence of the phenomenon can reach 4-6%. Many people simply do not know that they are different from the rest. In any case, these estimates are hypothetical.
One of the difficulties in studying the phenomenon is precisely the impossibility of accurate measurements. All data obtained from words is inevitably subjective.
In the university laboratory, headed by Pearson, for a more objective assessment, they came up with the use of binocular competition - competition between the eyes. If different images are shown to the eyes, then the brain will not be able to put together a general picture, and as a result, consciousness perceives either one or the other. In this case, it was about a red or green image.
The researchers tried to influence which one would be perceived and asked the subjects in advance to think about the color red. Then, when two different pictures appeared in front of their eyes, those who were able to see mental images perceived red in most cases, while the “mentally blind” did not have a clear priority. A preliminary image was not formed in their brains that would affect visual perception.
Researchers at the University of Westminster, including a Finnish scientist and professor of cognitive neuroscience Juha Silvanto, were trying to determine whether a person with aphantasia is capable of coping with tasks that require short-term visual memory.
Based on the results of this study, it was found that the brain can compensate for the lack of visual images by using alternative means to process visual information. Yet visual imagery makes short-term memory more accurate, helping in situations where you need to remember in detail what you saw.
The world of visual images can open in a dream
Over the years, the number of people participating in Zeman's research has grown to several thousand. Most of them have congenital aphantasia, but some have lost the ability to create mental images as a result of brain damage or due to psychological reasons.
There are very different people among the participants in the tests, including artists and writers. Zeman draws attention to the fact that mental images and imagination are fundamentally different things, although they are similar in sound. The inability to create mental images in no way means that a person lacks creative thinking.
A detailed analysis of the research results will take a long time, but some observations can be made already now.
Probably, prosopagnosia, or an inability to recognize faces, is often associated with a weak ability or inability to mentally create visual images.
A separate group of study participants noted that memories, for example, of vacations or family celebrations, were much more vague than those of other people. In this regard, people with aphantasia tend to take a lot of pictures.
The participants also included a small group of people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Interestingly, many “mentally blind,” including Mattsson, claim to be dreaming. It seems that when consciousness recedes, some changes occur, thanks to which the creation of mental images becomes possible. But how can a person with aphantasia understand that he has a dream?
Mattsson admits that he really cannot be completely sure of this. Nevertheless, when he wakes up, he experiences the sensation of watching TV, and if memories and sensations suggest that he was dreaming, he sees no obvious reason to doubt it.
One of Zeman's main findings is that there are many different manifestations of aphantasy, so that a narrower definition cannot cover all cases. For example, we are not always talking about visual images. This is the case with Mattsson.
“I never get visual images in my head. Nor are there memories of voices, smells, tastes, or other sensations. To feel something, I need a real stimulus."
Sensory perception of the smell of coffee, mosquito squeak or sand flowing through your fingers, of course, leaves a mark in the brain, but you cannot consciously reproduce them in the same form. The so-called average person can also reproduce far from every sensory sensation, at least not exactly. A very clear example of this is the diverging testimony of eyewitnesses of an event.
Future research on aphantasia may include its influence on learning. As you know, visualization helps to master new things, and the lack of the ability to visualize, thus, can create additional difficulties. If the hypothesis is confirmed, it will be possible to select alternative teaching methods for people with aphantasia.
It is also interesting how aphantasia affects empathy - the ability to empathize. After all, here mental images also play an important role.
Afantasia remains a mystery, and the search for a solution to it can be delayed
If we imagine the scale of the development of mental images, then at one end of such a scale there is aphantasia with their complete absence, and at the other end there is hyper-fantasy with an abundance of very vivid images. Most people will find themselves somewhere between these two extremes.
Simo Vanni, associate professor of neurophysiology at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, says the difference in perception is completely normal.
“Our perception is very subjective, but people are not aware of the differences until they talk about them. On the network there are memes dedicated to this, for example, some see a golden dress in the picture, and others - blue, some hear the name of Jenny on the audio recording, and others - Loral."
Images are created from memories. They are formed as a result of a complex process involving interconnected areas of the brain, but the exact mechanism of their formation is still not known. Vanni confirms that the brain is still very poorly understood.
“Of course, we learned a lot, collected a lot of data, but a holistic model of the brain still does not exist. There are many limitations associated with this."
It is also unclear where the gap between visual perception and mental visual image occurs, leading to aphantasia. Scientists are trying to find clues to the solution of this riddle, in particular, using functional MRI.
Seeing mental images or not: what if you could choose?
Some of the participants in Zeman's research noted that because of their peculiarities, they feel lonely and unhappy. The absence of mental images can create difficulties in various areas of life, lead to the fact that important events are partially or completely erased from memory. As a result, the mental creation of images is perceived as a kind of superpower, which you were deprived of.
Nevertheless, people most often feel relief from the fact that an explanation has been found for many things that previously seemed inexplicable. Documentary writer and communication skills development specialist Katleena Kortesuo on her blog gave a list of mysterious moments for her, which, as it turned out, are associated with the inability to remember information coming from the senses. For example, she could never identify the source of an odor without seeing it.
On the Internet, people who have learned about their peculiarities share information and experience and get acquainted with different forms of aphantasy. Many questions are asked. Do you hear music in your head? What do you prefer - books or films? Does the same thing happen with relatives?
In the future, it is likely that visual images will also be available to such people. A study is underway at the University of New South Wales to determine if the inner gaze can be developed through exposure to mild electrical shocks or through regular exercise.
According to Mattsson, aphantasia has many advantages. When you don’t remember past feelings, and you cannot draw a vivid picture of the future, it’s easier to relax and live for today.
“I always fall asleep easily in a relaxed environment,” he says.
The devastating earthquake in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in 2011, which caught Mattsson in the university study, was no exception.
“I only had time to hide under the table when the building was shaking and heavy objects began to fall from everywhere,” he says in his blog. - From these events I have a feeling of strength, and no painful memories press me."
This aspect of aphantasia also attracts researchers, since vivid and uncontrollable images accompany many mental disorders. These include, for example, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Of course, Mattsson is worried about the idea of mental images, but if there was a possibility to activate this ability right now, he would not agree.
"I would first try a little what it is, and then decide which option is better."
Henna-Leena Kallio