The mind's eyeThe mind's eye
All In The Mind
Picture an apple. Now picture your favourite character from a novel. And now a loved one's face. Can you see those images in your mind's eye? Some people can't because they have a condition called aphantasia which disrupts their ability to create a mental image.
33:31•28 Oct 2018
The Mind’s Eye: Aphantasia, Hyperphantasia and How We Picture Our Lives
Episode Overview
- Aphantasia describes people who can understand objects and faces but report no visual experience when they try to picture them in their mind’s eye.
- Mental imagery seems to lie on a spectrum, with some people having no images at all and others (hyperphantasia) experiencing pictures as vivid as real seeing.
- Objective lab tests, like binocular rivalry tasks, show that aphantasia reflects genuine differences in brain processing rather than simply how people describe their experiences.
- Strong mental imagery is linked in research to conditions such as PTSD, schizophrenia and visual hallucinations, suggesting that vivid pictures can sometimes amplify distress.
- Many people with aphantasia rely more on language, abstract “spatial” sense or other internal tools, showing there are multiple ways to remember, plan and be creative.
“"People would write about imagery like it was this thing that was crucial for life... and it turns out that's not really the case."”
What can we learn from those who have battled addiction? One unexpected angle comes from this episode of All In The Mind, which looks at how differently people picture – or literally can’t picture – anything in their head. That might sound far from cravings or relapse at first, but mental imagery turns out to be central to conditions like PTSD, anxiety and even hallucinations.
Host Lynne Malcolm introduces aphantasia, the experience of having no visual imagination, with researcher Professor Adam Zeman explaining that people with aphantasia "can think about an apple with no problem" but "they don't have an experience which is at all visual".
You’ll hear from Sian Thompson, who describes realising in her twenties that other people genuinely see pictures in their minds, and from her friend Tiger Webb, who admits that learning this was like finding out he’d been missing a basic mental skill: "I'm going around, I live with someone who I love... can she just see my face when she wants? That rules. I want that.
Why don't I have that?" Science journalist Carl Smith talks with neuroscientists trying to measure imagery objectively, including Dr Joel Pearson and Dr Rebecca (Beck) Keogh, who use a visual illusion called binocular rivalry to show that some people’s brains simply don’t generate inner pictures.
They also discuss the other end of the scale, hyperphantasia, where imagery can be as vivid as real seeing – sometimes a gift, sometimes a source of distress when memories or intrusive images feel too strong. For anyone interested in recovery, this conversation raises useful questions: how much of your struggle is tied to the pictures your mind throws at you?
And what if your brain works differently from the person sitting next to you at a meeting or therapy group? As Professor Zeman puts it, aphantasia is "an intriguing variation in human experience" that reminds us "we are all very different" – often in ways we can’t see. Could understanding your own mind’s eye change how you handle triggers, memories and hope?
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