What is "Aphantasia" that you can not imagine people or landscapes in your head?

ByAlice Popkorn

When she can not sleep, when she counts as "one sheep ...., two sheep ... ....", sheep appears and the image appears to overcome the fence in the head. It represents a state where you can not imagine the landscape in such a head "Aphantasia(A Phantasia) "research results were announced.

Lives without imagery - Congenital aphantasia
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010945215001781

Aphantasia: A life without mental images - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34039054

Most people can easily imagine an image in the head when imagining a scenery where the sun rises while walking along the sandy beach while closing their eyes but Exeter University, Herriot · Watt University, Edinburgh, According to the joint research that was announced, some people sometimes can not visualize their imagination and images. In research, we refer to that state as "a phantasia".

Niel Kenmuir, a man from Afantacia, realized that in the early childhood he could not visualize the image like any other person. Kenmuir, who was unable to sleep well one night, was told by his father to count sheep, but she could not imagine sheep and fence in the head of Kenmuir, there was nothing to count He said that. Although the image of turning point of life such as "admission" and "marriage" may be caught in memory, although Kenmuir's memory power is much better than others, I will memorize the scenery of the time tracing memory I can not do it. Also, it seems difficult to imagine a person's face.

When asked Kenmuir who lives in a world without images, a reporter of BBC asked, "What will happen if you try to imagine a fiancé?", "It is a hardest to ask question, I think about my fiancée Even though I do not see her in my head, I can see that my fiancee, who met today, pinned brown hair with pins that reminded of her figure today I recall the characteristic that she is "pinning the pin" instead of being in the room. " Kenmuir said that he was "very distraught" because he could not remember his mother's appearance a few years after her mother died, and he sometimes felt painful as being afantasia about.

There are also states which have quite opposite properties to Aphthathia which can not imagine an image at all. Lauren Beard, a fairy tale illustrator, seems to be able to visualize all the characters as clear images when reading a book.


Also, in the picture book of Beard, a scene of a baby climbing a chandelier appears, but when Mr. Beard has drawn a picture of this scene, a French tone where a magnificent glass chandelier is suspended in a blink of an eye He said that he was able to visualize the ball butter in his head. The baby is climbing the curtain aiming for the chandelier, Mr. Beard is said to be able to reproduce the movement of the shaking curtain. "I think that I have a strong imagination, I can create my favorite world in my head, add something I like while keeping the image, and enlarge people and things." Mr. Beard said.


According to Professor Adam Zeeman of Exeter University who announced the research of Afantasia, the state of Mr. Beard who is located at the opposite of Afantasia is "Hyperphantasia (Hyperfantasia)It is said that it is called. People in the state of Aphthathia are very difficult to explain that "images can not be visualized", so people in Afantacia who cooperated in research have recognized this condition and given a name He said he was pleased. Professor Zeeman asserts that "not a disorder" about Afanta island, and one in 50 people may be Afantasia.

Furthermore, it is a difficult task to confirm whether it is an aphthathia or not because only the principal knows how the image is depicted in the head. The psychologist at Exeter University uses the "visual mind image questionnaire" that can judge the strength of "the eyes of the mind". In addition, we have released a simplified version of the questionnaire that can be self-checked with 8 questions on the BBC page, and the questions are as follows.

◆ 1: Please imagine the appearance of friends, relatives, and other people who meet often. How clearly can you see the outline of the person's face, head, shoulders and body?


◆ 2: Continuing to imagine the same person, how strong can you see the person's head and body characteristics?


◆ 3: How well can you reproduce how the same friends and relatives walk, including stride length?


◆ 4: How vividly is the color of the clothes of friends and relatives imagining though vividly?


◆ 5: Please imagine the landscape that the morning sun rises carefully to details. How clearly are the sun and dull sky and the horizon depicted?


◆ 6: Visualize the clear blue sky surrounding the sun. How vivid is the image?


◆ 7: Please imagine the scenery where clouds appear in your blue sky and thunderstorms are rolling. How well can you describe the landscape?


◆ 8: A rainbow appeared in your sky. How clearly can you imagine a rainbow?


The answer is "No image at all (I can not see any image)"Vague and dim (vague dim.)"Moderately clear (in moderately sharp)"Reasonably clear (not perfect but reasonably clear)"As vivid as real life (as vivid as reality)If you choose one of OK. As you answer the above questions, the score is calculated at the end. Comments such as how much proportion of image rendering ability of yours generally corresponds is also displayed.