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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:
stuntbubbles · 16/02/2022 22:40

Yes to all of them to an extreme degree. It’s very useful as I write novels so I just play a scene in my head with a setting and smells and voices and everything, then write it down. Rewind it if I need to. I write a lot in my head while walking around then just jot it down later once the scene is memorised/recorded.

Neurotypical. Must ask ADHD DP which he can do!

Lessstressedhemum · 16/02/2022 22:42

None of them. I have no "mind's eye" at all. It makes a lot of things quite challenging.

TenoringBehind · 16/02/2022 22:42

Yes to all of those.

I assumed until fairly recently that everyone else could but I now know that dh can’t at all. I’m pretty certain that he has Asperger’s but it has never been diagnosed.

Zonder · 16/02/2022 22:42

I'm not sure what this is about. Yes to all in varying degrees but I thought until this thread that everyone would be like that. I'm pretty sure I'm NT although maybe a bit ADHD.

What's it all supposed to mean?

StewPots · 16/02/2022 22:44

Yes to all of the questions… I’ve never been diagnosed with anything other than extreme anxiety disorder and depression but I always if there’s other things going on because my behaviours, impulses and ideas are literally barking mad at times.

I have a mental health assessment in May and I’m hoping that will provide more answers.

Stripperyone · 16/02/2022 22:45

All of that apart from 1, and I may be able to -I think It's more that I don't actually understand what is meant by 'change the picture'?

To something totally different? Or a different background/position/colour?

FatCatThinCat · 16/02/2022 22:46

Another sensory anomaly I was told about is smelling books. I'm not convinced on this one, but our autism consultant once told me that she was fascinated by the fact that autistic people can smell books and NT people can't. WTF! Surely everyone can smell books

I started testing it out with the people I know and sure enough the only ones who could smell them were the ones I very much suspect are also autistic. I'm still not convinced though.

Maireas · 16/02/2022 22:47

Surely everyone can smell books?

Mydogmylife · 16/02/2022 22:48

@OhLordyWhatNow

Yes to all.

Not RTFT so not sure if anyone else has mentioned this; I also 'hear' food as musical notes. So citrus is a high note, chocolate is mid tone, and meat like beef in a stew is a low bass note.

Interesting - for me I 'see 'all numbers/letters etc as colours , so a is yellow, b is brown etc. In answer to the op , yes to all, have a constant stream of monologue but also see things in picture form . I dream in colour, I understand not everyone does this. I am NT
autienotnaughty · 16/02/2022 22:48

I have asd. I have a monologue and could play a song in my head. But no to everything else.

Sickoffamilydrama · 16/02/2022 22:51

@bluesugar

I can't do any except'g'. What does that mean?
You aren't alone in that. I can kind of do the music very briefly but couldn't think about a piece then recall it.

Would love to be able to see my beautiful children's faces they are their in my brain I can feel them but just out of reach of that makes sense. Maybe I should practice and see if it changes.

I'm dyslexic specifically auditory processing we are a neuro diverse family with dyslexia, Autism and ADHD.

Chakraleaf · 16/02/2022 22:51

No to all.

Diagnosed adhd

RebeccaCloud9 · 16/02/2022 22:51

If you've answered no - what happens when you read each point? So when I read Can you play a piece of music in your head? Immediately I thought of some music and plated it through.

If you can't, is there just nothing in your head when you try to think of music?

RebeccaCloud9 · 16/02/2022 22:52

*played it through

buddhasbelly · 16/02/2022 22:52

I can do none of these things.

The day my DH discovered I couldn't see anything when I closed my eyes was quite strange. He couldn't believe that all I see is black/nothingness. I was quite sad actually.

I couldn't belive he could picture an apple, change its colour, make it rotate. I thought he was joking.

Phrases like "counting sheep" made a lot more sense when I realised people could actually picture things.

FatCatThinCat · 16/02/2022 22:53

What? People don't dream in colour now? Am I the only one who has dreams so realistic that sometimes I'm unsure if it was a dream or a memory?

(Not the getting chased by miniature alien spaceships one, I knew that was a dream.)

MajorCarolDanvers · 16/02/2022 22:53

Yes I can do all.

buddhasbelly · 16/02/2022 22:53

@Sickoffamilydrama I tried to practice. I wanted to see my dd. It didn't work Sad

user1471481356 · 16/02/2022 22:53

All of it aside from music, but I’m tone deaf. I thought this was the norm?

LighthouseLass · 16/02/2022 22:55

Can do all of these, though the smell one takes much more effort and concentration.

I have songs constantly playing in my head, from the moment I wake up in the morning. I can "remix" songs with other songs , slow them down, speed them up... Asked DH and he can't do this, can others? I love music but don't play an instrument or anything like that.

I'm neurotypical as far as I'm aware.

CinzanoChic · 16/02/2022 22:55

Yes, all of them.

Maireas · 16/02/2022 22:56

@FatCatThinCat

What? People don't dream in colour now? Am I the only one who has dreams so realistic that sometimes I'm unsure if it was a dream or a memory?

(Not the getting chased by miniature alien spaceships one, I knew that was a dream.)

Me too! I often wake up, thinking things have happened that haven't!
RedSnail · 16/02/2022 22:56

No to everything except G. I have complete aphantasia affecting all of my senses, and am autistic.

buddhasbelly · 16/02/2022 22:56

@RebeccaCloud9 I would have to hum it.

I can't play a piece of music through but if I was thinking of a song I would feel the way I know hearing a certain piece of music makes me feel whether that be sad or happy if that makes sense.

Original poster
AmbushedByTheCake · 16/02/2022 22:56

@Stripperyone

All of that apart from 1, and I may be able to -I think It's more that I don't actually understand what is meant by 'change the picture'?

To something totally different? Or a different background/position/colour?

I suppose I mean if I say "apple" I can picture it in my mind - but then I can rotate it to look at it from a different angle, or I can then picture a different type - like a different kind of apple, or an apple in a supermarket, or a memory of a specific type of apple, and then the symbolism of an apple. And often these multiple associations will appear quickly.
OP posts: