Based on their surveys, Dr. Zeman and his colleagues estimate that 2.6 percent of people have hyperphantasia and that 0.7 percent have aphantasia.
Beside this, are there any benefits to aphantasia?
This lack of visual memory might have some possible advantages, however. Because aphantasia leads to a lack of visual imagery, people could be less likely to be troubled by intrusive recollections or disturbing flashbacks. People with aphantasia do experience visual imagery while dreaming.
In this way, how common is aphantasia?
Some people, when asked to form an image, will report they cannot “see” anything. This recently-identified variation of human experience was named in 2015 as aphantasia. It is estimated that 2% to 5% of the population have a lifelong inability to generate any images within their mind’s eye.
Is aphantasia a learning disability?
Aphantasia as a Disability
Because so little is known about it, it is not recognized with other learning disabilities. Those that have aphantasia have other ways of learning and coping without mental images. People who are most affected are those who have acquired aphantasia because they know what they are missing.
Is aphantasia a mental illness?
It seems that aphantasia exists on a spectrum, because some people with the condition report a complete inability to create a mental image while other people have a greatly reduced ability. Many people with aphantasia are self-diagnosed since there are no agreed-upon criteria for diagnosis.
Is aphantasia a type of autism?
Aphantasics show elevated autism-linked traits. Aphantasia and autism linked by impaired imagination and social skills. Aphantasia (low imagery) can arise in synaesthesia (usually linked to high imagery).
Is aphantasia genetic?
Whatever is happening neurally, it does seem to be heritable to some degree, with people with aphantasia more likely to have a close relative (parent, sibling or child) who also struggles to visualise. One reason aphantasia may have gone nameless and unstudied for so long is because it isn’t necessarily a problem.
Is aphantasia linked to IQ?
Pairwise comparisons indicated that the aphantasia group had a significantly elevated IQ compared with the hyperphantasia group (P = 0.002), but there were no other statistically significant differences.
Is aphantasia more common in females?
Object Visualization. Aphantasia, also known as congenital aphantasia, involves an inability to readily or reliably visualize mental images in the waking state. … Preliminary findings suggest that aphantasia affects about 2% of the population, predominantly those of male gender.
Is hyperphantasia real?
Hyperphantasia is the condition of having extremely vivid mental imagery. It is the opposite condition to aphantasia, where mental visual imagery is not present. The experience of hyperphantasia is more common than aphantasia, and has been described as “as vivid as real seeing“.