AIBU to think aphantasia is not rare?

[Sunninginthecorner]

I was doomscrolling insta and a video came up about aphantasia.

Rather than explain what it is badly I found this:

Aphantasia is a condition in which people do not visualize, or see, images in their minds. This rare way of processing information and recalling memories affects about four percent of people. Close your eyes and imagine a fluffy cat. What color is the cat? What is the cat doing? When asked such questions, many people will conjure up a lifelike visual image. But others do not. People with aphantasia know they are thinking of a cat. They can even describe what a cat generally looks like. But they do so without “seeing” a cat in their mind. Instead of using their ‘mind’s eye,’ someone with aphantasia may think using words, numbers or ideas.

Brain scans show that people with aphantasia respond differently to sounds than people who use mental images.

I can’t see images and my very small poll IRL hasn’t found anyone who does see images.

IABU - you can see in images and it is rare
IANBU - you can’t see images and can’t believe it’s that rare

The poll makes no sense. I see images in my mind's eye and do not think it is rare.

About 1-4% of people fit this category- I’m a hypnotherapist- it’s rare but not infrequent in clients

I can’t see images.
I have no idea how rare or otherwise it is.

I see very vague blurry images, most of the time I find it hard to picture things,my DD has this too.

Ah sorry bad wording I was meaning that not being able to see images is rare.

Wow I didn’t realise that it was a thing to see images.
I struggle to recognise people’s faces do you think the two are linked? By not retaining an image in my mind means I don’t recall what people look like.

4% is quite rare. Are you saying that the 4% is likely to be wrong or that rare means less than 1% or something?

I have aphantasia and I’m autistic. I think it’s linked.

Reading this I thought of a cat. I saw an image immediately.

He came with my first flat. He was a neutered ginger tom who was lying in the sun on the window sill over a radiator, his tail would gradually relax until it touched the radiator and then twitch up away from the heat. He looked totally relaxed as if he owned the place and I was the interloper. 😊 Very visual.

You poor thing! It must be like having no sense of smell or something. Or maybe being colour blind?

Then again, if you've never had it you probably don't miss it.

Don't have it myself, but my partner does.

That i’m surprised it’s 4% that seems really low. I didn’t realise it was a thing until this morning. I am surprised and now a little jealous of those who are seeing images in their mind!!!

I don't see images in my mind. I was absolutely amazed when I found out that my friend has a movie playing in her head when she's reading, I was also really jealous. My experience of reading is more like listening to the radio and although I love it I think I'd prefer the film playing!

Wow that’s incredible.

Yes it’s rare. Do you dream? Are your dreams just black?

Can you remember places you’ve been?

When you read books and it’s describing a place can you understand what the room looks like? How without a picture forming?

I agree with all you say there.
I now realise when people say an actor is not how they pictured them in the book - they actually pictured them. I just thought they meant the author’s description hadn’t matched eg hair colour or something.

I'd say 4% is quite rare. I'm the other end of the scale, hyperphantasic. I would assume most people are more in the middle - they have images, but not necessarily clear ones. These things are usually on a bell-curve across a population.

Is this the same kind of thing as people who don’t have an inner narrative/internal monologue? Is there an overlap?

I struggle with memory and cannot recall where I have been from memory. But can retrace my steps when in a place. I now think is this linked?
When reading I just read what it says so room with fire etc, I accept what the words say but I don’t conjure an image of it.

Interestingly I dream - but now realise my dreams are conversations about events not visuals.

I wish I have internal monologue

I struggle to visualise characters and even place descriptions in books. Unless they are places I have been.

If the books have been made into films then I visualise the actor as the character (IE Snape is always, always Alan Rickman. Even though I read the books long before I saw the films, Rickman as Snape is who I see if I'm asked the imagine Snape)

If you ask me to conjure a mental image of a cat, it would be my cat. Same with anything really, if you asked me to close my eyes and imagine a dog or a car or a beach it would from real life memory.

I am a prolific reader but I don't retain some details. I can read a whole book but only remember a few character names, but I can tell you what each character did in the book?

Wheh I read and something less tangible is being described - like a room or a view or a journey my mind kind of glosses over this. If I can't picture it from memory then I kind of skip over it.

Not sure what that makes me 🙃

Sorry I mean I wish there was a link and I didn’t but I do have internal monologue

I don't get a clear visual but I get a sense of whatever I'm thinking of, if that makes sense. I was astonished when DH described so vividly what he could see when I asked him to think of an apple.

I think I am a version of this. I have some visual memory, so I can kind of visualise such a cat, because I have seen one before. but I can't then adapt that image into something I haven't, so I can't imagine the same cat now sitting on our sofa, or walking on a beach, because my brain doesn't have that image already. I once went to a meditation thing which was all "imagine yourself on a tropical beach, now watch a horse cantering by...". Complete waste of time!

But listening to the radio gives me images, just like reading - "the pictures are better on the radio."