Aphantasia

Imagine a horse. You can probably picture one in your head.

But if you're one of the 2% of people who live with "aphantasia" then you'll see nothing.

You know what a horse is, you know it has got four legs, but you just can't visualise one.

Aphantasia is a phenomenon which has only recently been defined by scientists.

Aphantasia: A life without mental images

Many people with it don't have a clue that they are different to anyone else.

When we discussed it on the Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 a number of listeners came forward to tell us that we were describing their experience of life; that they had aphantasia.

Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioural neurology, coined the term aphantasia with his team at the University of Exeter.

He said: "It's a lack of the mind's eye. An inability to visualise. It's an intriguing variation in experience, rather than a problematic condition; it's not a disease."

Aphantasia can have an impact on memory, because people are unable to visually recall moments in their life.

Prof Zeman says that as many as one in 50 people have aphantasia.

He says people either tend to have it or not - rather than experiencing it to different degrees of severity: "There is quite a big spread in the range of how well people visualise things.

"But anyone with aphantasia is way off the scale. So, in broad terms, most people without aphantasia can visualise quite vividly. But anyone who does have it cannot."

Some Radio 2 listeners were astonished to find their experience of life being described on national radio:

Some of us pride ourselves on being logical. We think through ideas with the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. We enjoy structured thought and evidence-based conclusions. I’m sure you know the type – we plan out every step of a process, follow the Gantt chart to the “t”, and ensure results within schedules and deadlines.

Others of us pride ourselves on being creative. We rejoice in the big ideas, in the new discoveries, and in the satisfaction of creation. We are always coming up with new ways to solve problems, love the questions “what if?” and don’t mind jumping ahead in a conversation to tell you what we just thought of.

It is impossible to see what someone else is picturing inside their head.

Psychologists use the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, which asks you to rate different mental images, to test the strength of the mind's eye.

The University of Exeter has developed an abridged version that lets you see how your mind compares.

Your score:  37/40
This score suggests that your visual imagery is more vivid than usual. Scores at the upper end of this range are suggestive of ‘hyperphantasia’: exceptionally strong powers of visualisation. About 23% of people score in this range, the highest of our five bands. If you consider your imagery to be exceptionally strong, and would like to be included in future research, you can contact the team at Exeter University through this email: a.zeman@exeter.ac.uk