Welcome to Shane’s Brain - It's an interesting place where the contents of my brain are finally allowed to be experienced by the world! Basically I spew forth whatever happens to be oozing out of my brain at the moment. Humor, inspiration, education and more! I post every Wednesday of every week.
There are word tests given to folks to test memory, particularly the elderly. I wonder if this and continued research will help ensure that the tests work as intended for folks who do not have the inner voice.
This is fascinating and a really informative, engaging interview. Thank you to both of you. I think heavily in words, so much that I correct my grammar and reorganize my words within a sentence. It sometimes takes a while to think a thought fully because I keep editing the sentence. I also choose whether to think as an essay or bulleted lists or prose or storytelling. I think very much with words. I speak to myself and rehearse future conversations and replay or edit past conversations and experiences. But I don't think I have an audible voice for it. I CAN hear voices, like singers or people I know, but I don't think there is an audible voice associated with my thoughts unless I make an effort or the voice is screaming or whispering or the like. So interesting.
I have aphantasia and PTSD, aphantasia isn’t quiet in your head that’s something else completely. Aphantasia means all flashbacks are emotional and working through anything is difficult as you can’t visualise anything to work through and you can’t visual something going well for you so it makes getting out harder as well. Having a wave of unexplained emotion hit you like a freight train out of nowhere is horrible. Have to say I don’t wish to be able to see inside my head, I’ve lived 50+ years without it and I can see how bad it could be. I have had lots of trauma in my life which I had no problems with however now I have PTSD. IT DOES NOT REQUIRE IMAGERY AT ALL, That’s only one symptom out of that bracket, you don’t need all of them. It’s not like a memory at all, it’s like it’s happening now whereas a memory is in the past. PTSD flashback is reliving it like you’re there right now. My aphantasia I’ve had all my life, my dad has it, my sister partly and my mum can watch a movie in her head.
Thanks for the additional information and insight. I agree. It's interesting that the official diagnosis protocol hints that mental imagery in required. That's obviously not true. Every single person is 100% unique so we try not to put anyone or anything inside a box or a blanket statement. Thanks for listening and sharing!
Also, we know that Aphantasia, by definition is about mental imagery, not inner voice, but out of ease, we often lump all the inner senses into one discussion as they are all related in a way. The lack of an inner voice has just recently been given a name so it will start to get easier to call them different things. We have an episode about that coming out in July.
"When I close my eyes, I see only black... And when my eyes reach where it is physically impossible for them to reach, there, I see something special..." My god, those snowflakes are trying their hardest to feel unique... 😂
I can pull up things I have made mental notes of (like pictures of notes I have written), BUT I have to remember where the paper is that I wrote the note on. So I have to have a way of organizing my mental notes in a way that I can retrieve them. It's not super easy.
I have that same experience when I close my eyes. Seeing the brightly colored shapes, repeating in the same movement. Like Karen said, the shapes aren't necessarily the same from one occurrence to the next, but within each occurrence, they are the same and follow the same movements. I always thought it was how the brain processes the lights through the eyes. Maybe a function of the brain associated with the eyes.
I also use rerun TV or boring audio content to fall asleep. This allows me to stop being the author of my thoughts and go into a more passive listening brain state.
So what happens if someone says "close your eyes... apple"? This is an honest question. Not trying to be rude. Mostly I see a green apple slowly rotating. Sometimes I see the word "apple". What do you "see" with your eyes closed?
I didn’t have trouble as a child learning language. I have never seriously tried to learn a second language. I think how we visualize could certainly affect that. I might just have to add that to the questionnaire.
I have aphantasia, I can barely formulate an image, let alone colour. However, I am psychic and have an ability to know and still somehow “see” inside my mind. My dreams are lucid and more like a story as one woman mentioned. I am currently researching psionic abilities against aphantasia. I find this very interesting thank you
interesting how the brain works as I always say I don't dream alot as it's mostly blank like I shutdown and boot back up... but when I do rarely dream it's vivid to a point where even if it's ridiculous like flying and or driving it's very visceral. Then when it come to information storage I can't picture exactly what it is like other then a void-like place in my head where I can just pluck out information at will or a truck load of information all at once if I'm not specific with my intended thought...
more on the storage of info is I have tried making a mind palace for pneumonic recall and I found it hard to put myself in the constructs needed to accomplish that and I sleep in less than 5 min
Holy cats, this is so applicable!! "Don't allow something in your life that you know will destroy you...don't let it in your castle EVER." That's deep, man. And lesson #3 is absolutely spot on and sooooo timely. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!
