Daydreams: They Aren’t the Same for Everyone

By Kylie Wolfe

Do you daydream about ice cream for breakfast? Or enjoying the summer sun? If so, you might picture a crunchy waffle cone filled with chocolate chunk ice cream or bright blue skies out of the kitchen window.

You’re able to visualize these scenes because most people have what’s known as a mind’s eye, or the mental faculty to imagine something physical—an object, a sound, or color. But scientists are learning that some people don’t have this ability, leaving them without the power of imagination.

Childlike Wisdom

When Roberto S. Luciani, now a cognitive scientist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, was a child, he noticed he couldn’t visualize his thoughts like other people. When his mother described her dream from the night before as “movielike,” he realized his brain wasn’t functioning like hers.

The term for this condition, aphantasia, didn’t exist when Luciani was a kid, but he now has the pleasure of studying it alongside other scientists. They want to better understand the brain and learn how it works for those with and without aphantasia.

Neural Connections

To further explore this phenomenon, Luciani and his colleagues studied the connection between hearing and seeing. These senses often collaborate, giving feedback to our brains about what’s going on around us. What they found, though, was that this connection isn’t as strong in those with aphantasia.

To determine this, researchers blindfolded study participants, positioned them in a brain scanner, and had them listen to a forest of birds, a crowd of people, and a busy street. Participants without aphantasia exhibited neural stimulation in parts of the visual cortex while those with aphantasia experienced this to a lesser extent. Their findings were published in Current Biology.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, it’s uncommon for people to realize they have aphantasia, and it’s not considered a disability or medical condition. This characteristic can be congenital, meaning you have it your entire life, or it can be acquired later in life due to an injury or illness.

Seeing Differently

Aphantasia “exists in a realm of invisible differences between people that make our lived experiences unique, without us realizing,” Luciani told Science News. “I find it fascinating that there may be other differences lurking in the shadow of us assuming other people experience the world like us.”

These results are helping scientists better understand how the brain is organized and interconnected, and they show that it’s possible to see the world differently.