Can you do the following inside your head?

[AmbushedByTheCake]

... 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!

@Rainbows89

What, what, what. So when some people close their eyes you can SEE things?!?!

When I close my eyes I see nothing. It’s blackish red.

And another poster can see things with their eyes open?!!

How can we all be so very different?!?

You don't SEE it,you visulise it with your mind's eye.

I don't think being able to imagine/visualize/see things in your mind's eye is unusual, and is not an indicator of neurodiversity, as some people seem to be suggesting. Whilst it's apparent that some people can't/don't do it, I think most neurotypical people can, although our perceptions and therefore descriptions of it may differ.

Yep. All of the above.

Funnily enough, I've recently been tested for ADHD and am waiting for the results. I'm 50!

@AmbushedByTheCake
My friend could close her eyes and see a sunset with all the colours. If i close my eyes i see black but think about a sunset in my imagination

Yes to all. I'm neurotypical.

I can all of these too. Didn't realize that not everyone can.

[quote bruffin]@AmbushedByTheCake
My friend could close her eyes and see a sunset with all the colours. If i close my eyes i see black but think about a sunset in my imagination[/quote]
I have to invoke the images in my mind's eye. I can do it with my eyes open. It's not as though I close my eyes and they are there. If I close my eyes it is black, but if imagine an image I can 'see' it. So I suspect what you are saying is the same thing.

I can do all of those things. I just thought that was ‘normal’ and everyone could 🤷🏼‍♀️

Diagnosed ADHD and yes can do all of those. X

Yes to all of the above. I'm a very lucid dreamer as well - full 4D experience (I can smell, taste feel etc) and change my dream at will. I know I'm dreaming, if that makes sense?

Yes to all. wish my inner monologue would shut up sometimes.
Oddly enough, my visual imagination is less good than it used to be, which coincided with me being on a relatively high dose of sertraline. To be honest I can take the drop in high definition in my imagination to deal with my mental health.

a) Summon a picture of a specfic person/place thing? Can you change the picture?
Yep, do this all the time.

b) Can you 'hear' the voice of that person/sound in your head
Yep, really useful for very immersive daydreams

c) Can you play a piece of music in your head? Some or most of it?
Yep. Depending on the music, some I get a snippet, some I get the whole thing.

d) Can you play a scene from a movie/TV episode etc?
Yep, I also find I picture whole music videos in my head if I hear the song from them.

e) Can you run an animated or moving scene in your head? (like a horse trotting, or a waterfall flowing I suppose
Yep, like I said earlier very immersive daydreams

f) Can you recreate or imagine smells in your head?
Yep, though this one isn't as easy

g) (finally!) do you have a voice running in your head lots? A sort of monologue or tangent?
All the time. It never stops.

Yes, all of them, I dont think that's unusual is it? I went to one if those Writer's Talks and Ruth Rendell was being interviewed about her writing process. She said that from a young age, her interior monologue took the form of a written manuscript. For example

I can do all of these things...I'm more surprised that everyone can't.

Yes to all

Surely it's very very unusual NOT to be able to do those things

Bugger! Sorry. For example, her mother bringing something to the dinner table might be ' the mother entered the room carrying a dish of hot potatoes which she carefully placed on the table'. I found that quite unnerving and was thankful to not be a successful and prolific author.

Everything apart from imagining scents/smells

All of those. I surprised some people can’t.

Some more than others but yes to all except F. I can't imagine smells.
I also have tinnitus and my head is never quiet. It's tiring 😔

Absolutely not @OhLordyWhatNow. I don't do sneery unless someone is being actively unpleasant and, even then, I can't be arsed, half the time.

Dream in colour. Everyone surely? What else is there? I don't understand. I have very mundane dreams, like everyday life, until it goes a bit weird and I realise I'm dreaming and wake myself up. But lack of colour? What do you see?

If only I had silence in my head! The constant "chatter" is overwhelming at times I hate it and I answer yes to all your questions.

Yes to all thought the music is a bit out of tune like me!!

Can do quite a few - not the visual ones so much though.

For B if I read an email from someone I hear it in their voice in my head. That's normal right?

I'm dyslexic (official) and think I might have ADHD (not official)