You could have aphantasy, also known as mind blindness, and not even know it. We explain what it consists of and we show you some tests to verify it, below.
We are faced with a disconcerting phenomenon that weakens the mind’s eye, so to speak. It prevents us from being able to create images in our mind just by enunciating the concept (if they are not in the line of sight, they cannot be imagined).
However, in the hope of cracking the mystery of mind blindness, an Australian experimental company is trying to find an objective measure of the intensity of your imagination.
But let’s go by parts, do you have fancy? let’s check it out As science explains in this case, we have to imagine a cherry. Now, which of the following options describes you? Group 1: You are visualizing a brightly colored, vibrant fruit as if it lived in your mind, or Group 2: You are pondering the concept of a cherry without getting any mental image.
“When I close my eyes, I only experience darkness, I have no sensory experience”writes Neesa Sunar in a Psyche article on the phenomenon.
And about the lifestyle, “When we are told to imagine a beach, we assume that it only means to imagine the concept of a beach. When we are told to count sheep as we fall asleep, we don’t realize that we can actually see sheep jumping a fence.”
Well, if you belong to this second group, you could suffer from this mental blindness.. The same goes for the following tweet, which instead of being all or black and white, offers us varieties of gray. It should be noted that aphantasy is not considered a disorder or a condition, but rather a human characteristic.
Think of a horse 🐴No, really. Close your eyes and think of a #horse. Which image best describes your #experience?#imagine #NoHorse #aphantasia #AphantasiaTest #extreme #Imagination #BlindMind #AphantasiaLife #MindsEye pic.twitter.com/iNokhjMY9A
— Aphantasia Network (@_aphantasia) January 6, 2020
Well, this Australian company, last month, published an article about their progress in this regard in eLife magazine. “For the first time, we have strong biological evidence that aphanasics are actually trying to create a mental image, setting aside claims that they simply aren’t trying to create a mental image,” they explain.
And it is that, until now, it has been considered that these people did not generate enough effort to really create a mental image of a concept. It has been concluded that aphanasics really do try to visualize things, but their pupils only show their efforts when they are at their best.
The public debate on this phenomenon seems to have increased in recent years and is already You can find many tests online that help you find out where you are on the spectrum.
“It’s a very exciting time”say the researchers.“We are very close to having objective and reliable tests for extreme imagery, afantasy and hyperfantasy (extremely strong visual imagery) that could be scaled up to run online for millions of people around the world.”
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism