Even Aphantasiacs Dream
Okay, you're right, Aphantasiac is probably not the correct term for people who suffer from aphantasia. But it sounds good, doesn't it?
So people who have aphantasia have trouble imagining things. They may be unable to visualize anything. But their brains process images differently when awake or asleep. In the brain imagery comes from the bottom up, but visualization comes from the top down. And, according to the New Scientist magazine: People with aphantasia do experience visual imagery while dreaming. This suggests that it is only intentional, voluntary visualization that is affected by this phenomenon. Zeman explained to the BBC's Science Focus magazine that this is possible because what the brain does during wakefulness is different than what it does while dreaming. The imagery of dreams originates from bottom-up processes controlled by the brainstem. Visualization, on the other hand, requires top-down processing that originates in the brain's cortex. |
