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Comment by ksenzee | Hacker News Reader

Most people can picture things in our head. The name for the inability to do that is aphantasia: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34039054

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Interesting. This is the first I've heard of this. I think I have a mild case of this condition to be honest. I can imagine away like the rest of people I guess, but when I actually try and visualize something, I don't see it, not like in a dream or anything close to real life. If I close my eyes and imagine a candle with flame, with great effort I can start to see it, but it's faded on the sides (surrounded by darkness) and I can't ever get it to flicker like a real flame. I can "imagine" a candle though, and the flame is flickering, but I don't actually see anything.

Dreams are vivid and nearly real, at least that's my impression of them when I wake up, my imaginings or "Day dreams" are nowhere near as vivid, and I certainly can't see the details of my wife, kid or anything or anybody else on the level of "seeing an image of them."

When I am making a grocery list, I often walked around the store in my head, and check the various sections against the stuff in the fridge and pantry.

You are saying you don't visualize locations you are not at when navigating, organizing things, or trying to remember where you last left something?

Why would you need to? If you navigate and you don't see the object yet, it's of no help. And when you see it, there's no need in visualizing it.

I use it to make sure I haven't missed anything that I would want to buy in the grocery store, or in order to orient myself in space, or to determine where I may have left something by replaying my actions in that space.

That almost sounds like you have photographic memory. I do have a good spatial sense, and combined with a fairly decent memory, I can remember where certain things are, but if it's items I've never bought or looked at, I can't just bring it into memory like looking at a picture of it. I don't even really see the shelf, I just go to that spot on the shelf in my memory and think what was there. It's location only, I don't see anything.

When I draw something, I call up a shape from memory (more like a series of explanations of a shape rather than seeing the shape). Probably why I can draw simple things, and not always 100% the same way - I'm not drawing it from a mental image, I'm just thinking about the shape of something.

After reading this though, I'm amazed that people can visualize things so well and am kind of jealous. I've gotten by and other than not having a great drawing ability, it doesn't impact my enjoyment of books or anything like that.

I can picture things, just not in much detail. If I focus on any one the others fade.

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