Aphantasia is a condition that prevents people from creating mental imagery
. It is rare, affecting only about 4% of the global population…
My visual memory is like looking through a frosted window. I see some colors and blobby shape and that’s about it.
4% is a pretty big chunk of the population. That’s 1 in every 25 people. Which makes it all the more insane that nobody realised it existed as a condition until just a few years ago.
It really depends on how you define aphantasia. Often the VVIQ score is used, a vividness score ranging from 16 to 80.
About 0,8 % of people have a score of 16, and 3,9 % have a score <= 32. The figures are from one of the more recent studies. Other studies report similar figures, for example one study by Zeman found 0,7 % with a score of 16.
About ¼ of all people with visual aphantasia also have multisensory aphantasia (all classical senses and emotions).
Any mental imagery in general? Like through mind’s eye? Dreaming? I had a mind palace (like no joke) it took me years to build into something I could use, and I had a few seizures in relatively quick succession and I cannot imagine images with nearly the same clarity. My dreams are like trying to swim in molasses while wearing scuffed scratched glasses, and I haven’t been able to access my mind palace in years. Any time I close my eyes I just see vague blurry shapes and colors, there’s an environment there but I can’t see it. Now, I can still see faces and remember them, but imagining in my head kissing my girlfriend is impossible. Her face warps and melts and my mental vision goes fuzzy.
Lol wtf are you on about. It’s realistic to you that people can have PTSD, hyperphantasia, photographic memory, schizophrenia, bipolar, blindness/deafness, multiple sclerosis, and all these other otherworldy experiences which most people wouldn’t believe without being educated on it, but not realistic that a portion of people have deficient or non-existent mental imagery? Or even that a portion of people have ADHD?
I seriously doubt that you know better than neuroscience&psychology researchers and people who have the disorder but alright.
Also aphantasia isn’t “no remember thingies”. Memory is complex and it isn’t reliant on your ability to project images into your vision.
I have never been able to actually mentally visualize something, I always thought “imagine being in your happy place” was a metaphor and not that you’re actually supposed to visualize a place. I have always took “visualize” to mean not literally putting it in your vision, but just thinking about the fact of a situation. The closest I have to actually being able to picture an image/object is dreams and sleep paralysis hallucinations lol. No amount of caffeine or concerta could possibly change that. You’re crazy if you think because you can’t imagine it that there’s a conspiracy of “so-called aphantasiacs and medical researchers” who are lying about the existence of lacking mental imagery.
I’m curious as to where you allegedly saw aphantasia being “debunked” because all there seems to be is crazies on internet forums (specifically, Reddit and ycombinator) who notably aren’t psychology researchers, have no qualifications regarding the matter, and are just random people who want to feel like they cracked the code. Often times it’s people who have never been able to visualize who think their deficiency of mental imagery is the norm and that most other people have never been able to visualize either.
I’m also curious as to whether you think developmental/congenital prosopagnosia is fake or if it’s just a phase like you think aphantasia is.
These are by Rebecca Keogh (and others), an actual cognitive neuroscience specialist/psychology researcher who has a PhD from one of the most well-regarded universities in Australia. Here they establish that there is real evidence that aphantasiacs lack mental imagery, and finds that there is no evidence backing the claim that “aphantasiacs have mental imagery”. Keogh also has some works that delve deeper into mental imagery and how it’s a spectrum, including aphantasiacs and hyperphantasiacs.
I shouldn’t even have to give sources because I’m not the one claiming an abnormality in visual imagery is fake but here you go anyways.
It literally comes up immediately when you search for aphantasia research. You clearly have not even tried to find research on aphantasia. Now where are your sources? I notice you didn’t link any, at all.
MBTI testing is also horseshit.
??? Where in the god damn fuck did I mention MBTI or personality tests in general in my original comment?
I didn’t see it “debunked” on Hacker News and Reddit, those are the #1 aphantasia and ADHD havers in the entire world.
And yet you don’t mention where you “saw it debunked”, just stating that you totally did bro.
It’s hilarious you think something less rigorous than IQ testing is on the same level as PTSD
Again, you are being crazy, you are quite literally making up arguments to attack out of your ass.
I don’t know why you decided this is the hill for you to die on despite you clearly having no idea of what you’re talking about and most respected psychology & neuroscience/cognition researchers who have tackled the subject clearly not being aligned with your views on the matter at all, and what makes you think you have any authority to just call a scientifically measured and agreed-to -exist phenomenon fake, but go ahead and have a tantrum and pretend you know anything about the subject I guess.
If you respond with internet magazines or a shitty YouTube video essay as your source I’m gonna laugh myself to asphyxiation
Does Aphantasia also cause the development of superhuman levels of patience? Because my dude, i don’t know how you managed to entertain this troll for as long as you have. This whole thread was highly entertaining though, so thanks for that, lol.
(I know it goes deeper but i didn’t want to bury my comment that far down)
It’s extremely funny unblocking his profile once and seeing him on other random posts and replying to random comments threads I’m in, calling video game players mentally deficient, saying the people that are replying to him and downvoting him are bots (people obviously being extremely confused as to wtf his rambling has to do with the thread and scolding him for following users and harassing them), spam replying some random German dude and calling him my alt for no apparent reason, just in general being extremely obsessive/delusional over the comments. His meltdown alone was worth this comment thread lmfaooo. He’s paranoid as hell of everyone on the site now and lives in fear that all the users he interacts with may just be me in disguise, it’s glorious
Buddy you’re coping so hard. You said you saw a reliable source debunk aphantasia, and now you’ve been caught in your lie and you’re trying to weasel your way out. Some of these papers also have pools of various phantasiacs in the hundreds to thousands. A few of the sources clearly state (and give a source for) tens of thousands of people having been diagnosed with aphantasia.
Where is this “debunking” you said you saw? Is your angle now just “scientists are wrong and bad and having actual evidence on different levels of mental visual imagery is fake news, even though I am saying it’s wrong with no knowledge of neuroscience or psychology at all”?
Oh so your actual stance is “science isn’t real”. LMAO. You’re so pathetic, you actually think there’s a conspiracy by dozens of some very well-known and trusted neuroscience/psychology researchers on the subject, even specialists in the field (some of which have aphantasia themselves) to make up aphantasia?
“If I don’t like the ocean of sources and independent research, I’ll just disregard it, even if I have no evidence myself for my claim.”
Keep evading and making BS claims that you said you had sources for, despite you not having sources. Nobody’s buying your pseudoscientific anti-science drivel, go huff some minerals or something.
You said you had sources for “aphantasia is real”. Where are they? You think you can lie that easily and wiggle your way out of it? Clearly they’re very established in your memory since you’re so confident that it’s a total debunking of aphantasia.
I ain’t one down-voting you, but I have a horrible diet, rarely go outside, stare a screen for 16 hours a day, am constantly sleep deprived, and I can picture mental images just fine.
Aphantasia is a condition that prevents people from creating mental imagery . It is rare, affecting only about 4% of the global population… My visual memory is like looking through a frosted window. I see some colors and blobby shape and that’s about it.
4% is a pretty big chunk of the population. That’s 1 in every 25 people. Which makes it all the more insane that nobody realised it existed as a condition until just a few years ago.
It just doesn’t come up all that much. Folks live without knowing they are different.
And it is on a spectrum. Some folks is nothing others are can force a few pictures if they have to but aren’t clear. I dunno.
It really depends on how you define aphantasia. Often the VVIQ score is used, a vividness score ranging from 16 to 80.
About 0,8 % of people have a score of 16, and 3,9 % have a score <= 32. The figures are from one of the more recent studies. Other studies report similar figures, for example one study by Zeman found 0,7 % with a score of 16.
About ¼ of all people with visual aphantasia also have multisensory aphantasia (all classical senses and emotions).
I don’t see things in my head, it’s still blank but i can imagine the concepts. Do i have aphantasia? My dreams are vivid tho
Any mental imagery in general? Like through mind’s eye? Dreaming? I had a mind palace (like no joke) it took me years to build into something I could use, and I had a few seizures in relatively quick succession and I cannot imagine images with nearly the same clarity. My dreams are like trying to swim in molasses while wearing scuffed scratched glasses, and I haven’t been able to access my mind palace in years. Any time I close my eyes I just see vague blurry shapes and colors, there’s an environment there but I can’t see it. Now, I can still see faces and remember them, but imagining in my head kissing my girlfriend is impossible. Her face warps and melts and my mental vision goes fuzzy.
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We got a no-apple-seer over here
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Lol wtf are you on about. It’s realistic to you that people can have PTSD, hyperphantasia, photographic memory, schizophrenia, bipolar, blindness/deafness, multiple sclerosis, and all these other otherworldy experiences which most people wouldn’t believe without being educated on it, but not realistic that a portion of people have deficient or non-existent mental imagery? Or even that a portion of people have ADHD?
I seriously doubt that you know better than neuroscience&psychology researchers and people who have the disorder but alright.
Also aphantasia isn’t “no remember thingies”. Memory is complex and it isn’t reliant on your ability to project images into your vision.
I have never been able to actually mentally visualize something, I always thought “imagine being in your happy place” was a metaphor and not that you’re actually supposed to visualize a place. I have always took “visualize” to mean not literally putting it in your vision, but just thinking about the fact of a situation. The closest I have to actually being able to picture an image/object is dreams and sleep paralysis hallucinations lol. No amount of caffeine or concerta could possibly change that. You’re crazy if you think because you can’t imagine it that there’s a conspiracy of “so-called aphantasiacs and medical researchers” who are lying about the existence of lacking mental imagery.
I’m curious as to where you allegedly saw aphantasia being “debunked” because all there seems to be is crazies on internet forums (specifically, Reddit and ycombinator) who notably aren’t psychology researchers, have no qualifications regarding the matter, and are just random people who want to feel like they cracked the code. Often times it’s people who have never been able to visualize who think their deficiency of mental imagery is the norm and that most other people have never been able to visualize either.
I’m also curious as to whether you think developmental/congenital prosopagnosia is fake or if it’s just a phase like you think aphantasia is.
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These are by Rebecca Keogh (and others), an actual cognitive neuroscience specialist/psychology researcher who has a PhD from one of the most well-regarded universities in Australia. Here they establish that there is real evidence that aphantasiacs lack mental imagery, and finds that there is no evidence backing the claim that “aphantasiacs have mental imagery”. Keogh also has some works that delve deeper into mental imagery and how it’s a spectrum, including aphantasiacs and hyperphantasiacs.
Paper by Liana Palermo, PhD in cognitive neuroscience and specialist in mental imagery research, who very bluntly accepts the existence of multiple types of aphantasia & hyperphantasia
This paper by CJ Dance addresses the prevalence of aphantasia and how it is, again, a spectrum, and discredits the idea that it isn’t simply an impairment in metacognition, rather it is an isolated deficit in visual imagery.
Here’s a paper involving MANY medical, psychology, and neuroscience researchers which goes over aphantasia and hyperphantasia research, and has many citations to papers that affirm the existence of aphantasia.
A paper by a STEM/IM researcher finding evidence for deficits in mathematic visualization in aphantasiacs.
Paolo Bartolomeo is a highly accreddited neurologist & researcher, and Jianghao Liu is a cognitive neuroscience researcher (PhD) with specialization in visual mental imagery and consciousness. The paper clearly states the existence of a disorder causing absent or nearly absent visual imagery called aphantasia.
Here’s Cleveland Clinic casually affirming its existence too.
I shouldn’t even have to give sources because I’m not the one claiming an abnormality in visual imagery is fake but here you go anyways.
It literally comes up immediately when you search for aphantasia research. You clearly have not even tried to find research on aphantasia. Now where are your sources? I notice you didn’t link any, at all.
??? Where in the god damn fuck did I mention MBTI or personality tests in general in my original comment?
And yet you don’t mention where you “saw it debunked”, just stating that you totally did bro.
Again, you are being crazy, you are quite literally making up arguments to attack out of your ass.
I don’t know why you decided this is the hill for you to die on despite you clearly having no idea of what you’re talking about and most respected psychology & neuroscience/cognition researchers who have tackled the subject clearly not being aligned with your views on the matter at all, and what makes you think you have any authority to just call a scientifically measured and agreed-to -exist phenomenon fake, but go ahead and have a tantrum and pretend you know anything about the subject I guess.
If you respond with internet magazines or a shitty YouTube video essay as your source I’m gonna laugh myself to asphyxiation
I just witnessed a murder lol
Does Aphantasia also cause the development of superhuman levels of patience? Because my dude, i don’t know how you managed to entertain this troll for as long as you have. This whole thread was highly entertaining though, so thanks for that, lol.
(I know it goes deeper but i didn’t want to bury my comment that far down)
It’s extremely funny unblocking his profile once and seeing him on other random posts and replying to random comments threads I’m in, calling video game players mentally deficient, saying the people that are replying to him and downvoting him are bots (people obviously being extremely confused as to wtf his rambling has to do with the thread and scolding him for following users and harassing them), spam replying some random German dude and calling him my alt for no apparent reason, just in general being extremely obsessive/delusional over the comments. His meltdown alone was worth this comment thread lmfaooo. He’s paranoid as hell of everyone on the site now and lives in fear that all the users he interacts with may just be me in disguise, it’s glorious
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Buddy you’re coping so hard. You said you saw a reliable source debunk aphantasia, and now you’ve been caught in your lie and you’re trying to weasel your way out. Some of these papers also have pools of various phantasiacs in the hundreds to thousands. A few of the sources clearly state (and give a source for) tens of thousands of people having been diagnosed with aphantasia.
Where is this “debunking” you said you saw? Is your angle now just “scientists are wrong and bad and having actual evidence on different levels of mental visual imagery is fake news, even though I am saying it’s wrong with no knowledge of neuroscience or psychology at all”?
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Oh so your actual stance is “science isn’t real”. LMAO. You’re so pathetic, you actually think there’s a conspiracy by dozens of some very well-known and trusted neuroscience/psychology researchers on the subject, even specialists in the field (some of which have aphantasia themselves) to make up aphantasia?
“If I don’t like the ocean of sources and independent research, I’ll just disregard it, even if I have no evidence myself for my claim.”
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Keep evading and making BS claims that you said you had sources for, despite you not having sources. Nobody’s buying your pseudoscientific anti-science drivel, go huff some minerals or something.
You said you had sources for “aphantasia is real”. Where are they? You think you can lie that easily and wiggle your way out of it? Clearly they’re very established in your memory since you’re so confident that it’s a total debunking of aphantasia.
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Absorb green colors haha. How many crystals should I carry while I do the absorption?
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I ain’t one down-voting you, but I have a horrible diet, rarely go outside, stare a screen for 16 hours a day, am constantly sleep deprived, and I can picture mental images just fine.