Some People Can't See Any Pictures in Their Imagination, And Here's Why

It's more common than you'd think.

REBECCA KEOGH & JOEL PEARSON

THE CONVERSATION

Science Alert

December 2, 2017

Imagine an apple floating in front of you. Now see if you can rotate it around in your mind. Look at it from the top, bottom – does it have any blemishes? How clearly can you see it?

Some people see the apple perfectly, like watching a movie, while others have a very poor wavering image. Although it might be hard to believe, a small proportion of otherwise healthy people report having no visual experience at all.

In other words, their minds are completely blind – no matter how hard they try they don't seem to see the apple.

In fact, such individuals are often startled to find that people are not speaking in metaphors when they say, "I picture it in my mind's eye." This phenomenon of mind blindness has only recently been given a proper name – congenital aphantasia.

Mind blind

One of the creators of the Firefox internet browser, Blake Ross, realised his experience of visual imagery was vastly different from most people when he read about a man who lost his ability to imagine after surgery. In a Facebook post, Ross said:

What do you mean 'lost' his ability? […] Shouldn't we be amazed he ever had that ability?

We've heard from many people who have experienced a similar epiphany to Ross. They too were astonished to discover that their complete lack of ability to picture visual imagery was different from the norm.

Visual imagery is involved in many everyday tasks, such as remembering the past, navigation and facial recognition, to name a few.

Anecdotal reports from our aphantasic participants indicate that while they are able to remember things from their past, they don't experience these memories in the same way as someone with strong imagery.

They often describe them as a conceptual list of things that occurred rather than a movie reel playing in their mind.

As Ross describes it, he can ruminate on the "concept" of a beach. He knows there's sand and water and other facts about beaches.

But he can't conjure up beaches he's visited in his mind, nor does he have any capacity to create a mental image of a beach.

The idea some people are born wholly unable to imagine is not new. In the late 1800s, British scientist Sir Francis Galton conducted research asking colleagues and the general population to describe the quality of their internal imagery.

These studies, however, relied on self-reports, which are subjective in nature. They depend on a person's ability to assess their own mental processes – called introspection.

But how can I know that what you see in your mind is different to what I see? Perhaps we see the same thing but describe it differently. Perhaps we see different things but describe them the same.

Some researchers have suggested aphantasia may actually be a case of poor introspection; that aphantasics are in fact creating the same images in their mind as perhaps you and I, but it is their description of them that differs.

Another idea is that aphantasics create internal images just like everyone else, but are not conscious of them. This means it's not that their minds are blind, but they lack an internal consciousness of such images.

In a recent study we set out to investigate whether aphantasics are really "blind in the mind" or if they have difficulty introspecting reliably.

Binocular rivalry

To assess visual imagery objectively, without having to rely on someone's ability to describe what they imagine, we used a technique known as binocular rivalry – where perception alternates between different images presented one to each eye.

To induce this, participants wear 3D red-green glasses, where one eye sees a red image and the other eye a green one. When images are superimposed onto the glasses, we can't see both images at once, so our brain is constantly switching from the green to the red image.

But we can influence which of the coloured images someone will see in the binocular rivalry display. One way is by getting them to imagine one of the two images beforehand.

For example, if I asked you to imagine a green image, you will be more likely to see the green image once you've put on 3D glasses. And the stronger your imagery is the more frequently you will see the image you imagine.

We use how often a person sees the image they imagine as a measure of objective visual imagery.

Because we're not relying on the participant rating the vividness of the image in their mind, but on what they physically see in the binocular rivalry display, it removes the need for subjective introspection.

In our study, we asked self-described aphantasics to imagine either a red circle with horizontal lines or a green circle with vertical lines for six seconds before being presented with a binocular rivalry display while wearing the glasses.

They then indicated which image they saw. They repeated this for close to 100 trials.

We found that when the aphantasics tried to form a mental image, their attempted imagined picture had no effect on what they saw in the binocular rivalry illusion. This suggests they don't have a problem with introspection, but appear to have no visual imagery.

Why some people are mind blind

Research in the general population shows that visual imagery involves a network of brain activity spanning from the frontal cortex all the way to the visual areas at the back of the brain.

Current theories propose that when we imagine something, we try to reactivate the same pattern of activity in our brain as when we saw the image before.

And the better we are able to do this, the stronger our visual imagery is. It might be that aphantasic individuals are not able to reactivate these traces enough to experience visual imagery, or that they use a completely different network when they try to complete tasks that involve visual imagery.

But there may be a silver lining to not being able to imagine visually. Overactive visual imagery is thought to play a role in addiction and cravings, as well as the development of anxiety disorders such as PTSD.

It may be that the inability to visualise might anchor people in the present and allow them to live more fully in the moment.Understanding why some people are unable to create these images in mind might allow us to increase their ability to imagine, and also possibly help us to tone down imagery in those for whom it has become overactive.

Rebecca Keogh, Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience, UNSW and Joel Pearson, Associate professor, UNSW.

This article was originally published by The Conversation. Read the original article.

http://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-a-reason-why-some-people-can-t-see-pictures-in-their-imagination

Psychologist Reveals the Shocking Moment That Shook Her to Her Core and Forced Her to ‘Look Darkness Dead in the Eye’

Billy Hallowell
The Blaze
Nov. 4, 2015

An American psychologist who journeyed through her own battle with clinical depression and PTSD is now helping thousands of former child soldiers and sex slaves overcome the unimaginable horrors that they’ve faced at the hands of militants in Central and East Africa.

Dr. Bethany Haley Williams, founder of Exile International — a nonprofit that provides trauma care to kids who have been ”psychologically tortured and brainwashed” — told TheBlaze about the key experience that led her on a harrowing path that she would have never anticipated.

“On my first trip to the Congo in 2008, I met rescued child soldiers and heard stories of girls as young as five who had been raped as a weapon of war – I was never the same,” she said. “I made a vow to look the darkness dead in the eye, rather than look away.”

Williams, who has spent years helping African children, also warned about the horrific effects that the Islamic State is having on its young victims.

“Children who have experienced war of any kind have long lasting psychological scars,” Williams told TheBlaze. “A child’s basic need for safety is shattered at its core level, and systems such as health care and education are torn down.”

She continued, “Children not only die from bullets and bombs, but from preventable diseases and lack of basic needs as seen in the most recent migrant child crisis.”

Many of those displaced by the Islamic State, she said, are children. And considering the horrors that some of endured, it’s no surprise that many of these kids are being profoundly impacted by that they’ve experienced.

Aside from the disruption of basic needs, radical Islamic State terrorists have specifically targeted children in horrific acts of rebuke.

Consider a U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child report that was released this year, detailing unimaginable punishments on Iraqi children, including burying them alive, crucifying them, using them as human shields and recruiting mentally challenged kids as suicide bombers.

“The impact of ISIS on children reaches an even deeper level as children have been specifically targeted in killings,” Williams said. “Even recently, it was reported that a group of children were executed for ‘crimes’ such as refusing to fast during Ramadan.”

Among the most disturbing stories Williams has heard has been reports that young boys have been carrying out executions and beheadings.

“Boys as young as ten to twelve years old are taken, trained to use machine guns and brainwashed,” she said.

Williams, of course, is no stranger to helping children overcome the physiological scars that come along with war. Through Exile International, she said she has had the “beautiful” opportunity to witness healing and growth among many kids in Central and East Africa.

“We have been able to work with over 3,000 children since the beginning in 2008 in six different countries,” Williams said. “Exile International’s long-term programs and projects are in [the Democratic Republic of the Congo] and Uganda,where there are over 1,000 children in weekly trauma care and peace-building groups and close to 200 children receiving comprehensive care: counseling, food, clothing, education and medical care.”

In her recently released book, “The Color of Grace,” Williams describes how personal anguish in her own life led her to eventually go abroad to help children in need — a subject that she also discussed with TheBlaze.

“I had walked through my own journey of trauma and severe depression, so I knew what a flashback felt like. I knew how ‘real’ nightmares could feel,” she said. “Even though my pain and trauma paled in comparison to theirs … it still connected us.”

Williams, a Christian, said that she was motivated to journey with these children in an effort to help them realize that “God had dreams for them beyond their pasts,” describing her faith as being “like breath” to her being.

“I don’t know how to separate it from my work in war zones. I see Jesus as I watch little girls dancing in the middle of a country that has been deemed the worst place to be a child,” she said. “I watch God come alive through, Baraka, a former child soldier who tells me, ‘I was saved in the bush so I could bring the good news to the rebels and to teach them how to forgive.’”

Williams added, “I see redemption at its deepest level. It is not of this world. And, I believe, it is only the beginning.”

She said that she had never anticipated providing such long-term care to children in need and originally assumed that she would participate in short-terms missions trips, but that quickly changed as the need became apparent and Exile International began to grow.

Today, Williams is running a successful nonprofit that helps scores of children recover through a slow and steady process that involves art, dance, drama and music therapy.

Exile International uses a “three-tier approach to healing,” which involves a program that emphasizes healing and forgiveness, peace-building and then leadership skills. So far, she said that the impact has been profound.

“We are seeing our graduates return to their villages to teach community members about peace and reconciliation. One young man is leading bible studies with the rebel group he was once a part of,” she said. “The light of forgiveness and peace they are bringing to their countries is greater than any evil that tried to steal their innocence away.”

Find out more about the ”The Color of Grace” and Exile International.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/11/04/psychologist-who-rescues-tortured-kids-reveals-the-harrowing-moment-that-forced-her-to-look-darkness-dead-in-the-eye/

How Can Cults Harm People?

There are a wide variety of cults. Different people respond differently to the same environment. Therefore, not all people who have been in cults are harmed by the experience. But some, perhaps a majority, are harmed. 

The testimonies of the thousands of people who have sought help after a cult experience suggests that the core of their subjective experience is a sense of abuse and betrayal. The group promised them something wonderful, but ultimately they received disillusionment and pain.

Exiting a cult can involve much pain and suffering, in part because the group environment is so demanding and in part because the group becomes a part of the person’s identity.

Departure, then, is a form of psychic trauma. Indeed, many former cult members have been diagnosed with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
However, even for those who don’t reach the level of PTSD, the pain can be severe. Among the problems ex-cult members have reported are (adapted from Giambalvo):

• Sense of purposelessness, of being disconnected.
• Depression.
• Grieving for other group members, for a sense of loss in their life.
• Guilt.
• Anger.
• Alienation.
• Isolation.
• Distrust.
• Fear of going crazy.
• Fear that what the cult said would happen to them if they left actually might happen.
• Tendency to think in terms of black and white.
• Tendency to spiritualize everything.
• Difficulty making decisions.
• Low self-esteem.
• Embarrassment
• Employment and/or career problems.
• Dissociation.
• Floating/flashbacks.
• Nightmares.
• Family conflicts.
• Dependency issues.
• Sexual problems.
• Spiritual issues.
• Inability to concentrate
• Re-emergence of pre-cult emotional or psychological issues.
• Impatience with the recovery process.

Even with professional help, it is not uncommon for ex-members to require one or two years to work through their problems and re-establish an identity and sense of purpose apart from their group.

Adapted from: How Can Cults Harm People? (icsahome.com)

Does transcendental meditation to help veterans with PTSD?

By Steve Vogel

Seeking new ways to treat post-traumatic stress, the Department of Veteran Affairs is studying the use of transcendental meditation to help returning veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

“The reality is not all individuals we see are treatable by the techniques we use,” said W. Scott Gould, deputy secretary for the Department of Veterans Affairs, told a summit on the use of TM to treat post traumatic stress Thursday in Washington.

The VA is spending about $5 million on a dozen trials involving several hundred veterans from a range of conflicts, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Results from the trials will not be available for another 12 to 18 months.

But Gould said he was “encouraged” by the results of trials which were presented at the summit.

Two independent pilot studies of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans showed a 50 percent reduction in symptoms of post-traumatic stress after eight weeks, according to the summit’s sponsor, the David Lynch Foundation, a charitable organization founded by the American filmmaker and television director.

Results from the initial phase of a long-term trial investigating the effects of Transcendental Meditation on 60 cadets at Norwich University, a private military college in Vermont, have been encouraging, school officials said at the summit, held at The Army and Navy Club.

Students practising TM showed measurable improvement in the areas of academic performance and discipline over a control group. “The statistical effect we found in only two months was surprisingly large,” Carole Bandy, an associate professor of psychology who is directing the study at the university, said at the summit.

“For us, it’s all about the evidence,” said Richard W. Schneider, president of the university, who added that he was a skeptic before the trial began.

“Conventional approaches fall woefully short of the mark, so we clearly need a new approach,” Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School.

Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the foundation, is providing TM training to troops recovering from wounds at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. Troops report “dramatic improvements” in sleep, according to the foundation, as well as significant reductions in pain, stress and the use of prescription medications

Lynch, the director of “Blue Velvet,” “Mullholland Drive” and the television series “Twin Peaks,” is a longtime practitioner of TM, a meditative practice advocates say helps manage stress and depression.

By Steve Vogel  |  02:45 PM ET, 05/03/2012