Can everyone generate mental pictures?

The condition known as Aphantasia is rare but such individuals cannot picture an idea or even something as familiar as the face of a relative or the interior of their home. It’s unrelated to intelligence or a wide range of aptitudes but, unsurprisingly, individuals with Aphantasia would be less likely to be creative since they lack one of the imagination’s primary building blocks. I’ve only met an Aphantastic person once and wasn’t prepared to ask them the questions I now want to know. So I’m not sure if they remember images from their (sleeping) dreams, nor if they see the uncontrolled floating images many of us see as sleep approaches. But I suspect they don’t and I’ll leave it to neuroscientists to confirm that.

Posted on October 15, 2020 .