I cannot visualize at all

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So I recently learned I had a mental condition called aphantasia, which means that I'm incapable of creating mental images. When I imagine something, I can't actually see what I'm imagining. When I say something in my head, I can't hear it. I know I'm imagining it, and what it looks like, but there's no image. I've been like this my entire life, and never realized it wasn't normal. It's only recently been described in scientific literature, and was given the name aphantasia in a paper published last year. I'm also autistic (Asperger's) and am curious if there's any connection between the two, but it's far too early for us to know one way or the other. Anyone else here aphantasic?

Actually, it seems normal, for NTs AND Aspies. I see EVERYTHING in images in my mind (I can even see all the things in a restaurant I visited 50 years ago, for instance), and I always figured EVERYBODY was like that----until I came HERE----and, IIRC, it seems like about half of us (if not more), are like you; and, seeing things like I do, is NOT the norm.

Are you completely non-verbal, such that you can't think in words, just pictures? Or just a "neurotypical" visualizer without aphantasia? From what I understand, that can happen, but is rare, but am not certain. Aphantasia is about 2-3% of the population, so we're rare in the general population. And yeah, I thought I was completely normal until a couple of months ago. Kinda jealous!

I relate to that but I'm not sure if I have it or not. I was born with a rare low vision disorder & my brain has problems processing things I do see sometimes like I could look at something & not notice it's there rite away. I think in words & don't imagine what things look like.

Yes, me too. Jute also had aphantasia but he has recently disappeared from WP.

I can visualise. I like to listen to an audio story thing on Youtube when going to sleep, and as I listen to it I visualise in my head what the narrator is saying, and it's just like playing a movie in my head.

Much like Camping_Cat, I am one of the extreme visual thinkers (almost to a fault). It is almost impossible for me to think exclusively verbal in my head, I have to transcript a visualization in some manner for it to work.

I do visualise, but I get the impression most people visualise more vividly, in more detail, and more of the time than I do. It's hard for me to hold an image in my mind unless it's something abstract and geometrical. It took me ages to realise this. If I described something horrible or disturbing, the person I was talking to would often react like they actually SAW it. Because they could- in their mind's eye, unlike me. Wierdly, I LOVE books with lots of description in.

I do not much visualize things. I can recall details and accurately describe things, but I do not see them in my mind. The only time I can recall actually seeing something in my mind was not too long ago. I was doing blindness mobility (I'm not blind, I was blindfolded for this) and the guy teaching me had me stand on the side of a road and listen to cars while trying to do spacial placement with the cars as they passed. I actually saw a clear, gelatinous like blob in my head when one car went by. It was so freakin cool, the mental car image...

I am curious, can people with aphantasia visually dream? Before the car thing, I always figured I had to be able to see things in my mind because I dream in vivid detail (when I recall dreaming)... I know I have to be able to see things in my mind because I can while asleep... and apparently once while blindfolded... it seems an odd contradiction to me that I cannot do this while, oh, sitting around trying to draw a hand or recall my spouses face mentally. *shrugs*

I don't know what "think in words", means. I am like QuantumChemist says: "transcript a visualization"----though, I would've never thought to put it, like that----all I know is, if someone says "airplane", or whatever, I immediately visualize it. I CAN see words in my mind----but, it's a PICTURE of the word; for instance, I used to get good grades in spelling, cuz I could visualize my spelling book lying open on the kitchen table, and I could see our word list----but, I don't think that's what you mean.

I wish I could understand this----I wish someone could explain this, to me----cuz, the only thing I can figure a "verbal thinker" is..... Like, I can imagine a verbal thinker is someone who, when someone is talking, the first person sees the words the second person is saying, in their mind as white words being typed across a black screen; but then, that seems to ALSO be a visualization, so I dunno.....

@QuantumChemist: Are you a savant? Often, on here, we get someone asking if any of us are a savant, and I've always said "no", cuz I always figured this visualization thing, that I have, is something that MANY Autistics have. When I explored savantism (read articles on the Internet), I got the feeling that I MIGHT be a savant; then, out-of-nowhere, I got the opportunity to participate in an in-person study group (the study was about "mental things"----not, specifically, savantism), and they gave us a test, on which I scored perfectly, and the lady said I was a savant----but, I haven't been officially diagnosed; unless, maybe, I can count that lady; she WAS a "psychology professional", but it's not in my medical record.

I've always thought savatism was extremely rare----like, there's this "official" savant (a black guy in London; can't remember his name) who can draw cities, after a fly-over in a helicopter; I don't think I could do that (I can draw, but his drawings are UNBELIEVABLY detailed).

I very rarely remember dreams (over the past 48 years, I can count remembered dreams on one hand) and have only once had an extremely vivid dream. It was so vivid that I thought it was real and acted on its content the next day!

That would be Stephen Wiltshire. I have his first book.

^^ AH----thankyou SO much!! I SOOO want his book!!

What an interesting condition, I had never heard of it before.

I tend to visualise everything: scenes when reading, people's faces when simulating conversations, even words when I'm speaking and being spoken to.

I doubt if I am at that level, but I have never been tested directly for that though. I like to think of it as a special tool that I have learned to hone over my lifetime, as I did have this capability since I was young (but did not always use it for the greater good back then). My mental visual capabilities do extend far outside of the normal 3-D range of most people. (But to them, it would be a rather useless property to have as they usually do not have a need for it like I do.) If I concentrate hard enough, I can sometimes do mental x-ray images of moving things I am thinking about and can keep track of multiple movements of inner parts over time. That trait does help me in "seeing inside" of subatomic particles to figure out what causes their properties to be the way that they are.

Nikola Tesla was probably a true mental visual savant, as he was capable of building electrical devices and testing them in his head before going and making the real ones that worked. He did not need a blueprint to build something, it was all done in his head when he was inventing things.

My Aspie friend has that. He is completely verbal though. He explained to me how he thinks but I don't really understand it but he cannot visualize at all.