Aphantasia

Aphantasia is the suggested name for a condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot visualize imagery.[1] The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880,[2] but remained largely unstudied since. Interest in the phenomenon renewed after the publication of a study by a team led by Prof. Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter,[3] which also coined the term aphantasia.[4] Research on the subject is still scarce, but further studies are being planned.[5][6]

In popular culture

In April 2016 an essay by Blake Ross, co-creator of the Mozilla Firefox web browser, was published, describing his own aphantasia and his realisation that not everyone experiences it. It gained wide circulation in social media.[7]

Related concepts

Aphantasia is similar to color blindness, face blindness, word blindness and tone deafness in that people with these uncommon invisible disabilities are unable to do something that typical people can.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Larner, A. J. (2016-04-28). A Dictionary of Neurological Signs. Springer. ISBN 9783319298214.
  2. ↑ Galton, Francis (19 July 1880). "Statistics of Mental Imagery". Mind. Oxford Journals. os–V (19): 301–318. doi:10.1093/mind/os-V.19.301. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Zeman, Adam; Dewar, Michaela; Della Sala, Sergio (3 June 2015). "Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia". Cortex. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019. ISSN 0010-9452. Retrieved 24 June 2015. (subscription required (help)).
  4. ↑ Gallagher, James (26 August 2015). "Aphantasia: A life without mental images". BBC News Online. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  5. ↑ Zimmer, Carl (22 June 2015). "Picture This? Some Just Can't". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 24 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Grinnell, Dustin (20 April 2016). "My mind's eye is blind – so what's going on in my brain?". New Scientist (2070). Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Ross, Blake (22 April 2016). "Aphantasia: How it feels to be blind in your mind". Facebook. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  8. ↑ Wolcher, Louis E. (2016-06-17). The Ethics of Justice Without Illusions. Routledge. ISBN 9781317518341.

External links

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