Picture This? If You Can't You May Have Aphantasia
2015-08-26 08:36:12.209 GMT
By Rod Minchin
August 26 (Press Association) -- If counting sheep is an
abstract concept, or you are unable to visualise the faces of
loved ones, you could have aphantasia - a newly defined
condition to describe people who are born without a "mind's
eye".
Some people report a significant impact on their lives
from being unable to visualise memories of their partners, or
departed relatives.
Others say that descriptive writing is meaningless to
them, and careers such as architecture or design are closed to
them, as they would not be able to visualise an end product.
Cognitive neurologist Professor Adam Zeman, at the
University of Exeter Medical School, has revisited the concept
of people who cannot visualise, which was first identified by
Sir Francis Galton in 1880.
A 20th century survey suggested that this may be true of
2.5% of the population - yet until now, this phenomenon has
remained largely unexplored.
Visualisation is the result of activity in a network of
regions widely distributed across the brain, working together
to enable us to generate images on the basis of our memory of
how things look.
These regions include areas in the frontal and parietal
lobes, which "organise" the process of visualisation, together
with areas in the temporal and occipital lobes, which represent
the items we wish to call to the mind's eye, and give
visualisation its "visual" feel.
An inability to visualise could result from an alteration
of function at several points in this network. This problem has
been described previously following major brain damage and in
the context of mood disorder.
The recent research came about by chance when 21 people
contacted Prof Zeman after reading an article on his previous
research and realising they had never been able to imagine.
Now, Prof Zeman and his team are conducting further
studies with those affected to find out more about why some
people are born with poor or diminished visual imagery ability.
"This intriguing variation in human experience has
received little attention," he said.
"Our participants mostly have some first-hand knowledge
of imagery through their dreams.
"Our study revealed an interesting dissociation between
voluntary imagery, which is absent or much reduced in these
individuals, and involuntary imagery, for example in dreams,
which is usually preserved."
Prof Zeman and colleagues describe these patients'
experience in a paper just published in the journal Cortex.
ends
-0- Aug/26/2015 08:36 GMT
2015-08-26 08:36:12.209 GMT
By Rod Minchin
August 26 (Press Association) -- If counting sheep is an
abstract concept, or you are unable to visualise the faces of
loved ones, you could have aphantasia - a newly defined
condition to describe people who are born without a "mind's
eye".
Some people report a significant impact on their lives
from being unable to visualise memories of their partners, or
departed relatives.
Others say that descriptive writing is meaningless to
them, and careers such as architecture or design are closed to
them, as they would not be able to visualise an end product.
Cognitive neurologist Professor Adam Zeman, at the
University of Exeter Medical School, has revisited the concept
of people who cannot visualise, which was first identified by
Sir Francis Galton in 1880.
A 20th century survey suggested that this may be true of
2.5% of the population - yet until now, this phenomenon has
remained largely unexplored.
Visualisation is the result of activity in a network of
regions widely distributed across the brain, working together
to enable us to generate images on the basis of our memory of
how things look.
These regions include areas in the frontal and parietal
lobes, which "organise" the process of visualisation, together
with areas in the temporal and occipital lobes, which represent
the items we wish to call to the mind's eye, and give
visualisation its "visual" feel.
An inability to visualise could result from an alteration
of function at several points in this network. This problem has
been described previously following major brain damage and in
the context of mood disorder.
The recent research came about by chance when 21 people
contacted Prof Zeman after reading an article on his previous
research and realising they had never been able to imagine.
Now, Prof Zeman and his team are conducting further
studies with those affected to find out more about why some
people are born with poor or diminished visual imagery ability.
"This intriguing variation in human experience has
received little attention," he said.
"Our participants mostly have some first-hand knowledge
of imagery through their dreams.
"Our study revealed an interesting dissociation between
voluntary imagery, which is absent or much reduced in these
individuals, and involuntary imagery, for example in dreams,
which is usually preserved."
Prof Zeman and colleagues describe these patients'
experience in a paper just published in the journal Cortex.
ends
-0- Aug/26/2015 08:36 GMT