Can't count sheep or picture the faces of loved ones? You may have APHANTASIA: Condition describes people who don't have a 'mind's eye'
- Visualisation is created in a network of regions across the brain
- These include the frontal and parietal lobes, which 'organise' the process, and the temporal and occipital lobes that represent so-called 'mind's eye'
- An inability to visualise may result from faults across this network
- Concept was first identified in 1880 but is a little-understood condition
Many people can close their eyes and easily imagine the sun rising or visualise memories from their past, but for others it is impossible.
Researchers describe this condition as aphantasia and it refers to people who are born without what's known as a 'mind's eye.'
Studies suggest it affects around 2.5 per cent of the population yet little is know about why it occurs.
Many people can close their eyes and easily imagine the sun rising or visualise memories from their past, but for others it is impossible (stock image). Researchers describe this condition as aphantasia, and it refers to people who are born without what's known as a 'mind's eye'
Visualisation is the result of activity in a network of regions widely distributed across the brain.
These networks work together to help us generate images using our memories 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.
An inability to visualise could result from an alteration of function at several points in this network and the concept was first identified by Sir Francis Galton in 1880.
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 Professor Adam Zeman, at the University of Exeter Medical School after reading an article on his previous research and realising they had never been able to imagine.
Professor Zeman and colleagues describe these patients' experience in a paper published in the journal Cortex.
Some of them reported a significant impact on their lives from being unable to visualise memories of their partners, or departed relatives.
Others said 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.
'This intriguing variation in human experience has received little attention,' Dr Zeman 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.'
For example, participant Dame Gill Morgan first realised that her ability to conjure a mental picture differed from her peers during management training in her twenties.
'We were told to 'visualise a sunrise', and I thought "what on earth does that look like?" - I couldn't picture it at all,' the 61-year-old from Devon explained.
Visualisation is generated in a network of regions across the brain including the frontal (yellow) and parietal lobes (green), which 'organise' the process of visualisation, together with areas in the temporal and occipital lobes (light blue), which represent the items we wish to call to the mind's eye
Sufferer Niel Kenmuir, 39, from Lancaster, first realised he couldn't visualise images at primary school. He said: 'I can remember not understanding what 'counting sheep' entailed when I couldn't sleep. 'When I tried it myself, I found myself turning my head to watch invisible sheep fly by' (stock image pictured)
'I could describe it - I could tell you that the sun comes up over the horizon and the sky changes colour as it gets lighter, but I can't actually see that image in my mind.'
'I became more aware of it when my mum died, as I can't remember her face,' she said.
'I now realise that others can conjure up a picture of someone they love, and that did make me feel sad, although of course I remember her in other ways.
Another sufferer is Niel Kenmuir, 39, from Lancaster, who first realised he couldn't visualise images at primary school.
'I can remember not understanding what 'counting sheep' entailed when I couldn't sleep. I assumed they meant it in a figurative sense,' he said.
'When I tried it myself, I found myself turning my head to watch invisible sheep fly by. I've spent years looking online for information about my condition, and finding nothing.
'I'm very happy that it is now being researched and defined.'
Professor Zeman and his team plan to conduct further studies with those affected to find out more about why some people are born with poor or diminished visual imagery ability.
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