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Original poster

Can you do the following inside your head?

401 replies

AmbushedByTheCake · 16/02/2022 20:44

... or brain.

Various conversations recently with people, and following my ongoing ADHD research, I'm interested how people can recreate sensory detail/movements/memories etc. Can you do the following:

a) Summon a picture of a specfic person/place thing? Can you change the picture?
b) Can you 'hear' the voice of that person/sound in your head
c) Can you play a piece of music in your head? Some or most of it?
d) Can you play a scene from a movie/TV episode etc?
e) Can you run an animated or moving scene in your head? (like a horse trotting, or a waterfall flowing I suppose
f) Can you recreate or imagine smells in your head?
g) (finally!) do you have a voice running in your head lots? A sort of monologue or tangent?

Disclaimer: curiousity only! Not a scientist - questions clumsily worded. Trying to understand my own brain - I think I can do most of the above or some version. I can hear sounds and picture things vividly, and I get some sense of a smell (for example bacon frying) I can 'rememeber' the taste/smell of it.

Interested to see what this is like for others!

OP posts:
sashh · 17/02/2022 04:18

Yes to all of them.

I'm quite a visual person and I'm dyslexic (also have lots of ASD traits) and I picked up BSL very easily.

When I was in primary school I used to close my eyes to do 'sums', I was looking at dots in my head and moving them to add them up.

Days of the week have colours as do pains, I might describe a pain as 'blue spikey' or 'pink fluffy'.

MrsToddsShortcut · 17/02/2022 04:44

Yes to all of them. I have synaesthesia as well so if I listen to music, I can see shapes and squiggles and whole

MrsToddsShortcut · 17/02/2022 04:52

Sorry! Posted too soon.

My brain is constantly filled with 'movies' which are made up of memories which I watch in my head. All my memories play in my head like a film which I can watch - friends can't understand how I am able to tell them everything that happened and what people were wearing on any given day. It is literally like watching a film so I can pause it and have a good look around at what everyone is doing. I assumed everyone did this?

Callcat · 17/02/2022 04:57

Yes to all except the voice running in my head, I don't have an inner monologue in words. It's more pictures / concepts or silence!

NothingIsWrong · 17/02/2022 05:37

I can do all of those and some more that are very job specific. Im a trained structural engineer and I can see and manipulate 2D plans in 3D in my head.

OutlookStalking · 17/02/2022 05:54

Wow MrsTodds that's amazing! It's not at all common - more of a photographic (cinematic?) memory. I think you know not everyone can do this - hence your friends not knowing how you can remember what people wore etc. I couldn't tell you what friends I saw last week were wearing ...

I had a friend at uni that would recall whole conversations from a couple of years back as well as visual details. It is unusual but a great skill!

Woahthehorsey · 17/02/2022 06:05

Yes to all. I'm neurotypical.

With regard to the music, i can only 'hear' as much of a tune/ song as I could hum or sing outloud.

Woahthehorsey · 17/02/2022 06:07

@MrsToddsShortcut

Sorry! Posted too soon.

My brain is constantly filled with 'movies' which are made up of memories which I watch in my head. All my memories play in my head like a film which I can watch - friends can't understand how I am able to tell them everything that happened and what people were wearing on any given day. It is literally like watching a film so I can pause it and have a good look around at what everyone is doing. I assumed everyone did this?

I also assumed this was normal, but I think we all assume that our own experience is normal!
saturdayhelicopter · 17/02/2022 06:19

For the life of me I cannot picture faces in my head, even of loved ones. I know what they look like and can imagine the whole person but I find it really hard to visualise the face.

Everything else yes.

saturdayhelicopter · 17/02/2022 06:20

Oh, no, no voice in the head. My thoughts are just there, they're not narrations IYSWIM. My wife was really surprised about this and I thought it was just normal.

indiesearcher · 17/02/2022 06:35

Yes to all, thought it was perfectly normal!

CoverYourselfInChocolateGlory · 17/02/2022 06:45

Trying each of these out I've realised that it's hard to recreate a moving image in my head - it feels like I can but when I really concentrate I can see it's only a collection of snapshot images conveying a sense of movement. I can't recreate the flow.

Playing a piece of music in my head is easy, however, and yes to all the rest as well.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 17/02/2022 06:51

I have a constant “film reel” running in my head.

alienbotanist · 17/02/2022 06:59

We called it "videotape" memory in my family, and my DS, my brother and I have it...but mine is thoughts, feelings, etc not images, whereas I think my brother and DS have it as visuals too. We 'rewind' to the point in time to find out what happened. We all have quite detailed recall of past events even from when we were v young

Going back to the music thing- a couple of weeks ago, I heard a phrase, and immediately started singing "Every Loser Wins" by Nick Berry, all the way through, word for word... I haven't heard it since it was in the charts in 1986 Confused

FindingMeno · 17/02/2022 07:02

Yes.
I thought everyone does.
What does happen in other people's heads then?
The thought of my head not doing all that stuff freaks me out a bit.

FindingMeno · 17/02/2022 07:05

I particularly see words. I'm good at spelling so I kind of spell check with my brain.
It's in a nice handwritten form.

Soontobe60 · 17/02/2022 07:06

Yes to them all - why? What does it imply?

KatnissNeverdone · 17/02/2022 07:06

None at all apart from the constant running monologue of words. I can imagine tunes but only so far as my voice humming or singing them. The only time I have pictures in my head is when I'm dreaming.

UseOfWeapons · 17/02/2022 07:15

All of the above.

gingerhills · 17/02/2022 07:19

@Hairyfriend

Yes, I can do all the above. I have very good spacial awareness and memory. I could visit someones home and a week later- imagine I was sitting in each corner of their ceiling looking down and recall what I see from the various angles. I can often find my way back to a location I've only driven to once using buildings/trees as cues on where to go.

A year ago we bought a very large derelict property. We walked through with the real estate agent and spent maybe 10-15mins inside- dodging floor to ceiling furniture! We'd made an offer and back home, I drew up a rough floor plan of what I could remember. I didn't measure any sizes, but the overall plan and room locations were very close to what it is- albeit some rooms ended up being larger once the rooms were clear.

My DH is the absolute opposite. We bought this home and have spent hours over the past year renovating. He still struggles to imagine rooms when we aren't inside the house or understand when I explain about a certain wall. I can clearly see the plan and X wall backs into the bathroom. He cannot 'see' this automatically though.

He also still struggles driving to shops 15mins away which have several routes that can be taken to get there. He would find his way there eventually, but might take the longest route, or have to stop to check his phone. Neither of us have any learning issues that I'm aware of , both have degrees and successful careers but in very different areas. He did skip a year in some subjects, but I certainly don't think its to the level of a savant.

This is interesting. I can do similar to you. Can go back to places I only went once, years before. because I just unlock the photographic memory of last time I was there and follow its instructions.

But for the life of me I absolutely can't see what could be there. When Kirsty says 'knock down this wall...' I can intellectually imagine it but not visualise it in any way that I'm confident is consistent with how it would be.

ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings · 17/02/2022 07:22

All of that except for the smells one, but I don't have a sense of smell so not surprising. As far as I know I'm NT.

Alwaysconfuddled · 17/02/2022 07:27

I have ADHD and can only do (c), the internal monologue for me os actually a song playing, it’s always there.

If I am reading, I say the words out loud or mouth them. I have to make notes of what I want to say before talking to someone on the phone. Basically the things you can do internally, I have to make external and write non it down or sketch it. Like with young kids when you ask them to count, I have to say it out loud or use my fingers.

ouch12345 · 17/02/2022 07:36

@BlondeWidow I could imagine what my nails would look like but can't actually visualise it. And obviously I know what my children look like but can't see their faces if I try to in my head. I feel sad now that other people can do this 😂

MangoLipstick · 17/02/2022 07:39

Yes to all of them.

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 17/02/2022 07:42

@Savingpeoplehuntingthings

Yes to all. I'm neurotypical.
Yes,me too.
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