Difficulty controlling mental rotation.

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I have always wondered what this is. I am not sure how to explain it, so I'll use an example.
Say, you are imagining a cube in your mind. You rotate it so you can see one of its faces at a different angle. When you rotate it, it starts spinning in that direction, and you can't stop it. You have to apply erm.....physical mental force to it. And sometimes you apply it too hard, and it starts spinning the other direction! The cube is almost out of your control, like if it were in real life, abiding by some funky gravity. But it's in your head. It has the same feeling you get when you try to put 2 north poles of magnets together. It doesn't work. And it is frustrating.
I have always had this....Moreso when I was a child. It is much less now. And I can control it more. Like just now, I was trying to find the midway of my window's width. I found it, but my eye's internal pointer would not touch it. Only back and force between two points directly to each side of it. It was frustrating!

Does anyone else get this? Is this a common human thing? I've never really spoken of it to anyone, so I wouldn't know. But I've always wondered.

In mathematics, this is called making a translation with a geometric object aka moving an object in space. This has to do with visual-spatial awareness/learning. The part of the brain that is doing the work is called the amygdala. If you have a special interest in ASD's you can definitely find some journal articles on how the amygdala and visual-spatial awareness works in the brain. But that would be boring - I think this is a common thing- it's something I do when I am bored.

I did not understand the last part of your writing, sorry.

There are lots of games on the internet that give you practice with this type of skill. Like those mind of a 21 year old games or whatever they are called. It can be higher-level thinking, if you are interested. Also, rubic's cube same idea.

Well, my skills in this are above average. I'm saying...I don't know how to explain! Sorry you did not understand.
It's like my brain cannot control it's own image at times. Does that make sense? I create the image then lose control.

Sounds like a strong dash of obsessional thinking on top of the visual translation thing. I find other things repeat in my mind without my control (sounds and words that are not necessarily thoughts), and I have to work to put something else there or sometimes wait it out.

You and I can visualize well.
I would do this if I could but do you think you could?
Make a real cube out of coat hanger wire and also extra wire
to hold it like a magnifying glass, and turn it around,
then stop turning it, turn it the other way, and you
control it. Maybe that will teach the imaginary cube
a lesson.

Or, imagine there is dynamite in the cube that destroys it
if it doesn't stop turning. Sometimes if my brain plays a
dumb song, I make an imaginary radio and imaginary dynamite that makes a louder noise and breaks the radio,
usually the awful music stops then.

I suspect there's nothing abnormal going on there. I think it's an illusion that any person is the master of their own mind. Meditation enthusiasts often try to think about nothing or to focus completely on one image, but it's said to take years of practice to get anywhere near to complete control. Alan Watts reckoned that it was as feasible as trying to smooth water with a flat iron.

Whenever I try to visualise anything, I only get a partial picture and all kinds of irrelevent elements add themselves to the mix.

That's really interesting, i've never really mentioned this to anyone before but it sounds like the same thing i do.

For those who use excel, when you copy something you get the border around it with the lines that flash and look like a single broken line traveling in a certain direction. It's a similar thing to christmas lights which alternate and look like the lights are moving along. Hope that makes sense.

Well i copy a few cells on excel and play with them, usually when i'm having concentration issues. I will stare at them watching the lines move clockwise (my standard), then i will force them to change direction to anti clockwise. Then i'll force them to change direction and often and quickly as i can. Then i play with making them go in the same direction, so it's a pouring effect, in my mind it's now water entering a source, then of course i turn them around again and it's now water moving away from a source.

I can sit doing this for many minutes at a time, sometimes to help get my focus back, sometimes becuase i've lost my focus and i find myself doing it. It used to be really tough but now i have good control of the, With on/off single rotating lights i don't even see movement now, i see lights turning on and off, where most people see lights moving along.

I'm trying to visualize how you are visualizing it. LOL!! ! I've sat here for about a half of an hour imagining a cube being poked by a stick in zero gravity. Is that what you see?

Or does the image progressively deteriorate as it spins and you lose mental control?

If it's the latter, I'm wondering if it might be only an issue of being unable to retain that image in your working memory for that period of time. That sort of mental manipulation is very challenging. I'm only guessing though.

If it's the first thing that I mentioned, I have no clue.....perhaps you are just very imaginative....along with the visual translation.



This is a little different than what you described above. You are actually using what is called gaze fixation (fixating your gaze at a certain point). Perhaps you cannot do this for very long and your gaze then wanders off. I don't know much about the concept though.

Lol, nice. Yeah, that is sort of what I see. XD It was just an example. The image isn't deteriorating, it just won't move as I say. XD

And the gaze fixation thing....Like, my little mental arrow wouldn't touch it. Like I couldn't put it on the one part of the window. Like when you try and touch a magnet with another magnet, and it doesnt touch it.

See what I mean? Both of them are the same in the sense that they wouldn't be moved.

I find that I have problems with that, as well.