Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Why can’t I see images in my head?
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Why can’t I see images in my head?
CrowdScience listener Eileen cannot see images in her head of her memories. She only discovered by chance that most other people can do this. She wants to know why she can’t see them and if it is something she can learn to do.
Anand Jagatia finds out what mental images are for and whether scientists know why some people can’t create them.
Three per cent of the world’s population cannot see mental images like Eileen. And it is only recently been given a name – aphantasia.
Anand discovers why mental images are useful, why they are sometimes traumatic and how people who are blind or visually impaired can also create images of the world around them.
Contributors:
Emily Holmes, professor of clinical psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden
Adam Zeman, professor of cognitive and behavioural psychology, Exeter University, UK
Joel Pearson, professor of cognitive neuroscience, University of New South Wales, Australia
Paul Gabias, associate professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada
Marijke Peters, Hannah Fisher and Jo Glanville, CrowdScience producers
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Jo Glanville
Editor: Richard Collings
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
Sound: Jackie Margerum
Image credit: Andriy Onufriyenko | GETTY IMAGES | Creative #1397973635
View all episodes
By BBC World Service
4.7
424424 ratings
CrowdScience listener Eileen cannot see images in her head of her memories. She only discovered by chance that most other people can do this. She wants to know why she can’t see them and if it is something she can learn to do.
Anand Jagatia finds out what mental images are for and whether scientists know why some people can’t create them.
Three per cent of the world’s population cannot see mental images like Eileen. And it is only recently been given a name – aphantasia.
Anand discovers why mental images are useful, why they are sometimes traumatic and how people who are blind or visually impaired can also create images of the world around them.
Contributors:
Emily Holmes, professor of clinical psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden
Adam Zeman, professor of cognitive and behavioural psychology, Exeter University, UK
Joel Pearson, professor of cognitive neuroscience, University of New South Wales, Australia
Paul Gabias, associate professor, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Canada
Marijke Peters, Hannah Fisher and Jo Glanville, CrowdScience producers
Presenter: Anand Jagatia
Producer: Jo Glanville
Editor: Richard Collings
Production co-ordinator: Jonathan Harris
Sound: Jackie Margerum
Image credit: Andriy Onufriyenko | GETTY IMAGES | Creative #1397973635
More shows like CrowdScience
View all
In Our Time
5,426 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,803 Listeners
The Naked Scientists Podcast
600 Listeners
Global News Podcast
7,657 Listeners
Science Weekly
412 Listeners
6 Minute English
1,751 Listeners
Learning English Conversations
1,074 Listeners
Science In Action
342 Listeners
More or Less: Behind the Stats
898 Listeners
Discovery
966 Listeners
The Infinite Monkey Cage
2,080 Listeners
Newshour
1,042 Listeners
In Our Time: Science
726 Listeners
The Life Scientific
239 Listeners
Unexpected Elements
355 Listeners
BBC Inside Science
399 Listeners
The Inquiry
754 Listeners
Curious Cases
763 Listeners
People Fixing the World
245 Listeners
13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle
4,195 Listeners
Americast
700 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
2,962 Listeners
The world, the universe and us
105 Listeners