Some people can't see mental images

Range of Inner Experiences

• Commenters report the full spectrum: from “complete darkness” (no voluntary images at all) to hyper-detailed scenes where they can rotate objects, see reflections, even “project” images over real vision.
• Many aphantasic commenters say they nonetheless “know” what things look like and can draw, navigate, or recognize faces, but without any felt inner picture.
• Others describe hazy, low‑resolution or fragmentary imagery that only sharpens when carefully attended to, suggesting a continuum rather than a strict on/off trait.

Dreams, Hypnagogia, and Other Senses

• Several with aphantasia report vivid, movie‑like dreams or hypnagogic imagery, contrasting sharply with their waking inability to visualize.
• Some can strongly imagine sounds, music, or tactile sensations but not visuals; others have vivid taste or smell imagery (e.g., “tasting” a dish while planning cooking).
• A few report the reverse: strong visual imagery but almost no internal sound or smell.

Internal Monologue and Non‑Visual Thinking

• Internal monologue appears largely independent: some aphantasics have constant, detailed inner speech; others report none and think in abstract “graphs”, spatial relationships, or wordless “vibes”.
• Nonvisual thinkers describe solving spatial or engineering problems via an abstract sense of structure, constraints or “vector-like” relations, not pictures.

Testing, Evidence, and Skepticism

• Popular self‑tests include the “apple scale” (1–5 vividness), the “ball on a table” scenario, and follow‑up questions about color, size, or background details.
• Some argue many people misunderstand these prompts and that differences may be mostly semantic; others point to brain‑imaging and drawing‑based studies showing systematic differences in visual cortex activation and object memory.
• One commenter is strongly skeptical of all introspective reports, citing work on the unreliability of self‑description; others counter with acquired aphantasia cases (pre/post surgery or illness) as strong evidence of a real change.

Memory, Emotion, and Everyday Consequences

• Several note overlap with severely deficient autobiographical memory (SDAM): they recall events as facts or narratives, not relived scenes, and often can’t re‑evoke original emotions unless they reconstruct the story step by step.
• Others say aphantasia hasn’t felt like a disability: they discovered it late in life, function well in careers like software or engineering, and may even be less prone to intrusive flashbacks or distraction.
• Reading experiences vary: some aphantasics skip descriptive passages or find films more compelling; others enjoy fiction but experience characters/places as concepts rather than visuals.

Plasticity, Training, and Open Questions

• A few report partial gains in visualization via practices like drawing from memory, chess “board vision,” flame‑afterimage exercises, meditation, psychedelics, or focused dream journaling.
• Others with lifelong or acquired aphantasia say attempts at training yield, at best, fleeting blobs or outlines, suggesting limits to plasticity.
• Open debates remain about how much these differences affect learning, creativity, math and art, and to what extent they can or should be deliberately modified.