Afantasie
Aphantasia is the suggested name for a condition where one does not possess a functioning mind's eye and cannot visualize imagery.[1] The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880,[2] but has remained largely unstudied since. Interest in the phenomenon renewed after the publication of a study conducted by a team led by Prof. Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter,[3] which also coined the term aphantasia.[4] Research on the subject is still scarce, but further studies are planned.[5][6]
History
The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880 in a statistical study about mental imagery.[2] Galton described it as a common phenomenon among his peers.[7] However, it remained largely unstudied until 2005, when Prof. Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter was approached by MX, a man who seemed to have lost the ability to visualize after undergoing minor surgery.[8] Following publication of MX's case in 2010,[9] Zeman was approached by a number of people claiming to have had a lifelong inability to visualise. In 2015 Zeman's team published a paper on what they termed "congenital aphantasia",[3] sparking renewed interest in the phenomenon now known simply as aphantasia.[4] Research on the subject is still scarce, but further studies are being planned.[5][6]
In popular culture
In April 2016 an essay by Blake Ross was published on Facebook, describing his own aphantasia and his recent realisation that not everyone experiences it. His account gained wide circulation on social media.[10]
Related concepts
Aphantasia is similar to invisible disabilities such as color blindness, face blindness, word blindness, and tone deafness,[11]Vorlage:Request quotation though aphantasia itself has not been associated with any discomfort, distress, or functional deficits.
References
External links
- aphant.asia – An online community for people identifying as aphantasiacs
- Vorlage:Cite episode
Vorlage:Med-diagnostic-stub
Vorlage:Neuroscience-stub
- ↑ A. J. Larner: A Dictionary of Neurological Signs. Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-29821-4 (englisch, google.com).
- ↑ a b Francis Galton: Statistics of Mental Imagery. In: Mind. os-V. Jahrgang, Nr. 19. Oxford Journals, 19. Juli 1880, S. 301–318, doi:10.1093/mind/os-V.19.301 (yorku.ca [abgerufen am 26. April 2016]).
- ↑ a b Adam Zeman, Michaela Dewar, Sergio Della Sala: Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia. In: Cortex. 73. Jahrgang, 3. Juni 2015, ISSN 0010-9452, S. 378–380, doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019, PMID 26115582 (sciencedirect.com [abgerufen am 24. Juni 2015]).
- ↑ a b James Gallagher: Aphantasia: A life without mental images. In: BBC News Online. 26. August 2015, abgerufen am 26. August 2015.
- ↑ a b Carl Zimmer: Picture This? Some Just Can’t In: The New York Times, 22 June 2015. Abgerufen im 24 June 2015
- ↑ a b Dustin Grinnell: My mind’s eye is blind – so what’s going on in my brain? In: New Scientist, 20 April 2016. Abgerufen im 9 July 2016
- ↑ "To my astonishment, I found that the great majority of the men of science to whom I first applied, protested that mental imagery was unknown to them, and they looked on me as fanciful and fantastic in supposing that the words 'mental imagery' really expressed what I believed everybody supposed them to mean. They had no more notion of its true nature than a colour-blind man who has not discerned his defect has of the nature of colour." (Galton, 1880)
- ↑ You might not be able to imagine things, and not know it. In: The Independent. 25. April 2016, abgerufen am 16. Dezember 2016.
- ↑ Adam Z. J. Zeman, Sergio Della Sala, Lorna A. Torrens, Viktoria-Eleni Gountouna, David J. McGonigle, Robert H. Logie: Loss of imagery phenomenology with intact visuo-spatial task performance: A case of ‘blind imagination’. In: Neuropsychologia. 48. Jahrgang, Nr. 1, 1. Januar 2010, S. 145–155, doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.08.024 (sciencedirect.com).
- ↑ Blake Ross: Aphantasia: How it feels to be blind in your mind. Facebook, 22. April 2016, abgerufen am 27. Juli 2016.
- ↑ Louis E. Wolcher: The Ethics of Justice Without Illusions. Routledge, 2016, ISBN 978-1-317-51834-1 (englisch, google.com).