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!

Yes to all the above. I also have a photographic memory. I can also split my brain in two and count/tally two or three separate lists of items/numbers. I use it all the time counting stock at work.

@Somuddled

Yes to all, I am autistic. I can't quite comprehend how other people can't. So if you can't play a scene out in your head, does that mean you just don't remember anything you watch? The same for not being able to picture a person you know, how do you not know what your own mum looks like? What happens in your brain when someone says 'think of your mum'???

I remember what happened but struggle to visualise it. If watching a series I can only truly recall events and characters when watching the next one. My visual memory is poor.

I think in words but it's not a monologue. My mind is mostly quiet. If it isn't then I know I am stressed. I can remember smells vividly, right back to childhood (including the smell of baby-milk powder mum used for my siblings.) I struggle to picture people or places, as others have said it's like snippets and the more I try the more it fades. Certainly couldn't change these images, that seems bizarre.

@bebanjo

For those who cannot ‘see’ people/ things in your minds eye, how do you describe them? How do describe an incident to the police? You send a friend to the super market you use all the time, they ring and ask where the bread is, can you direct them to the bread, do you have to look for it every time you go shopping?

For me it's more like map or a framework. So I can describe my dh but can't see him in my mind's eye. Same with a shop and bread, I know the area it's in but can't "see" it. Same if someone describes something to me, I hold the details but can't picture it.

I can do it all. I am NT as far as I know.

No to the smells.
I can do all the rest but have to try quite hard with some of them. I can’t think of faces of people or places unless I know them quite well.
I hope I’m never needed to be a witness to a crime as I would never remember any details of what the perpetrator looked like or was wearing, unless I saw them about 3 times.

I used to worry about being asked anything by police or be thought to be hiding something/lying. Now I know it's called prosopagnosia I feel less worried about it!

My ex and I used to have this conversation.

He was all of them - especially (g)
I can easily imagine all of the images, sounds smells, but they are fainter than the real experience, and I've no idea what (g) must be like!

It's very quiet inside my head - he found it difficult to believe me when I honestly replied "nothing" to the question "what are you thinking about?". I can look at a view / go for a walk and just look, I have no inner monologue about it. That must be exhausting 😲.

Everything except the smell. I can imagine what the smell is like (eg a rose) but I physically can't smell it unless it's there. Almost, like a muted smell, but not a strong smell.

@Heatherjayne1972

An internal monologue ? That sounds exhausting

You mean there’s a voice constantly talking?
Eg ‘I’m sitting on the sofa. Now I’ll feed the cat. Better get the kids ready Oh I forgot to wash up etc etc …’

That would drive me mad

For me it's more like "thank god I'm sitting down, ouch my back hurts. Bugger, better feed the cat, oh what time is it? Reckon I should get the kids ready" so more what you might say to someone else. Interspersed with random thoughts. Why has Sheila been sacked? Oh I need to phone the doctor tomorrow. Wow shiny things!

I am now worried that people aren't able to do this..... how do you trigger memories or visualise what you are going to do in the future? Do you live in the moment at all times?

a) Summon a picture of a specfic person/place thing? Yes
Can you change the picture? No
b) Can you 'hear' the voice of that person/sound in your head just a single phrase or even just a sensation of sound (eg timbre of their voice) which I associate with that person. More of a key for recognition than a memory I think
c) Can you play a piece of music in your head? Some or most of it? yes, but fairly weakly
d) Can you play a scene from a movie/TV episode etc? no, never more than 1 snapshot if that
e) Can you run an animated or moving scene in your head? (like a horse trotting, or a waterfall flowing I suppose no, only still
f) Can you recreate or imagine smells in your head? yes, sort of - a memory of a smell rather than recreating it
g) (finally!) do you have a voice running in your head lots? A sort of monologue or tangent? no, never. I'll have a sensation of my own voice (words, but not a true sound) if I'm thinking something through, but otherwise silence

I think most of my memories are more things which my brain uses to categorise and know who/what things are, rather than full stories. I do get some images (stills with associated emotion) for important happy memories though.

I'm more or less NT, but high IQ and brain works a bit weirdly. I work in IT and have an unusually high ability to focus my full attention on what I choose to (both interesting and boring tasks) - commented on by various people over the years. When I'm fully focused, I'm unaware of my surroundings. However, I have a very poor memory for what people look like and their names, which can be embarrassing. Even people I've known a long time.

how do you trigger memories
I have the knowledge that simething happened (but turned into information, rather than a memory) often alongside a single still image - sometimes but not always with sensation of sound - which is of when/how I learned it

What an interesting thread! Yes to all of it. I thought that was normal, thought I was... (OK, I know we're not supposed to use that word). I want to ask everyone now.

All of the above and I am (as far as I am aware) neurotypical. I didn't know that other people can't do these things. I have sometimes wondered after reading threads on here if I might actually have ADHD though. I find timing things incredibly difficult and am a terrible procrastinator.

I run a constant commentary inside my head and have done since I was a child. Almost as if I'm a character in a book.

visualise what you are going to do in the future

I don't visualise the future. It's abstract. I know I need to go to the shop to buy milk later. I certainly don't need to visualise the shop or the milk to plan that! Do you?

Yes to all of them. I can also recreate a smell if I concentrate.

a) Summon a picture of a specfic person/place thing? I can but it isn't vivid and if I focus on it it skitters. Its as much in my brain as in my eye.
b) Can you 'hear' the voice of that person/sound in your head clearly.

c) Can you play a piece of music in your head? Some or most of it? yes
d) Can you play a scene from a movie/TV episode etc? it's more auditory than visual, but in correct voices
e) Can you run an animated or moving scene in your head? yes but it's close focus rather than a whole scene
f) Can you recreate or imagine smells in your head? no
g) (finally!) do you have a voice running in your head lots? A sort of monologue or tangent? of course, always.

@ChristmasLightsAndSparkles

visualise what you are going to do in the future

I don't visualise the future. It's abstract. I know I need to go to the shop to buy milk later. I certainly don't need to visualise the shop or the milk to plan that! Do you?

I visualise specific events rather than every run of the mill thing I'm going to do each day, eg I am going to a party later and I can visualise myself arriving, or I can visualise myself arriving at a holiday destination. It's actually a bit disconcerting when it looks nothing like I had pictured in my mind.

@ChristmasLightsAndSparkles

visualise what you are going to do in the future

I don't visualise the future. It's abstract. I know I need to go to the shop to buy milk later. I certainly don't need to visualise the shop or the milk to plan that! Do you?

But what about imagining your beach holiday or wedding or seeing someone you've not seen for ages? If I think of those things i get images, some still, some moving, cobbled from memories and other images I've seen I guess

All of them. I've been referred for adhd

BiL who has ASD will see the word beach, if you ask him to picture a beach

All of them. I have ADHD.
My inner monologue drives me insane and I'd love to know how to turn it off!

Yes to all of them except not taste or smell. I thought most of it was the product of a slightly overactive imagination. I can control it though, I don't have a monologue running that I can't stop.

Yes all of them. My brain never shuts up.