36 sats \ 7 replies \ @Undisciplined 2 Aug \ on: What Happens In a Mind That Can’t ‘See’ Mental Images science
I hadn’t heard of this. Brains sure are weird.
I posted aphantasia-related posts once or twice but never got much traction. Interesting to see Quanta Magazine talking about it.
Though it was described more than 140 years ago, the term “aphantasia” was coined only in 2015.
My favorite anecdote regarding aphantasia before it was coined as such is when Feynman was describing in one of his books how people count inside their heads. He observed two distinct approaches. Some people would see the numbers flashing in front of their mind's eye, some people would somehow internally have to say the word to keep track of the count. And he noticed that because of this, some people would not be able to do different tasks depending on their specific way of counting.
This is most likely a byproduct of being aphantasic.
I only discovered not that long ago that I do not have a mind's eye (or even dialogue, for that matter). It was weird to realize that many other people's brain is very different. There are support groups on Facebook for people who do not accept this aphantasic condition. I do not think of it as a condition though, I'm sure it benefits me in several ways. I've actually noticed that many of my scientist colleagues seem to be aphantasic too...
My wife was a bit sad when she realized I cannot conjure her face if she's not in front of me with my eyes open...
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That's really interesting, especially that you're one of the people with no internal dialogue.
I'm going to guess that you're a faster reader than I am. As I read, I internally say each word. I used to find it frustrating, because I knew I had registered the word before I finished "saying" it and should therefor be able to read much more quickly without doing that.
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Never thought about it, but indeed, I do not say the word in my mind. It somehow clicks into a meaning.
On those Facebook groups, people kept having these little aha moments where they could explain some of their behaviors with this newly acquired knowledge. I left those groups when I noticed it became almost like an obsession for people.
I'm happy I found out about it, but don't like too much the idea of labeling people, so I barely think about it anymore. We're all quite different in many ways. To steal a word from the autism world, all of our behaviors are on a spectrum, doesn't mean one is weird or abnormal.
Haha, as a side note, I was just thinking what I could do an AMA about. Couldn't think of much people would be interested in. Not sure many people would have much to ask about being a physicist. Maybe I could to a tag-team AMA with other aphantasic people :)
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People might be interested in both: i.e. "I'm a physicist and aphantasic. AMA."
I started out in physics, so I'd definitely be interested in picking your brain.
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Without doxxing yourself, what kind of physics?
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This was just undergrad study and a couple of grad level courses. I had a focus in atmospheric physics and worked as an RA through most of undergrad.
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