summary: Scientists have discovered how the brains of people with eclipse, and those who cannot imagine mental images, and processing visual information differently. Although the visible brain areas and the main memory are still active during mental photo tasks, they show a weaker connection compared to individuals with typical perception.
This supports the idea that the wealth of mental images depends on the extent of the brain’s inclusion of signals across these areas. Despite their lack of internal images, the pervantine individuals maintain strong visual knowledge, which indicates that mental images are not necessary to understand or creativity.
Main facts:
- Definition of APHANTASIA: About 4 % of people are unable to voluntarily visualize mental images.
- Nervous contact: Exclusive individuals stimulate similar brain areas during photo tasks, but with the integration of the weakest network.
- Functional insight: The quality of mental images depends on the communication between attention, memory and visual areas – not just activation alone.
source: Paris Institute of Brain
Thanks to the 7T FMRI, researchers from the Paris Institute of Mint and Neurospin, the CEA nervous imaging center, explores the neurotransmitter of optical images with very high accuracy for the first time.
Their results were published in DandruffThe way to better understand this wonderful cognitive ability, which some of us completely lack.
Visual images – the ability to call a scene, person, or object that cannot be directly noticed – in intensity from one individual to another.
Some people can remember a detailed city map and walk on every street as if you were watching a movie. Thinking about a member of his family, others may barely make a silhouette and hair color.
Interestingly, about 4 % of the population seems completely unable to visualize a scene on demand: this is known as Aphantasia, which is a well -known cognitive privacy for more than a century, but it was recently studied by scientists.
Initial studies indicate that the budget has existed from birth and often affects many family members itself. Although it is not considered a disorder, it is often associated with a weaker self -memory of the average, difficulty in identifying faces, or even an autism spectrum disorder. However, these associations are still unconfirmed and difficult to explain.
To understand what distinguishes Avantia in the brain, we needed to study the nerve mechanisms involved in visual images and perception. “For this matter, we have benefited from 7-Tesla FMRI, which allows us to monitor brain activity with very high accuracy,” said Paulo Bartolomeo Enerme, the co-captain of the Nozha team in Paris.
Most previous studies have relied on APHantasia on high self -tests as participants were forced to assess their perception capabilities. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to determine whether these tests already evaluate mental images or reflect beyond knowledge instead, that is, a person’s ability to describe his mental processes.
In cooperation with the Stanislas Dehane team in Neurospin, the CEA Center for brain imaging, a post -PhD researcher sought Jiangao Liu, and Paolo Bartolomeo, and their colleagues to study the characteristics of Fansik individuals more objectively.
“We wanted to identify the accurate nerve circles involved in mental images and visual perception. Most importantly, we aim to understand how to process visual information in the brain in the absence of optical stimuli,” said Jiangao Liu, post -PhD researcher.
The perception of a scene with the “eye of the mind” is complicated. It involves experimenting with the visual properties of the object without an object. This process not only recruits the brain circles associated with sensory experience, but also depends on language and memory.
To destroy this process, the researchers employed 10 topics of ovens and 10 materials with “model” mental images. These individuals underwent a very functional magnetic resonance depiction during the response during the response, from memory, to questions about the visual features of familiar organisms, words, faces and places. Communication deficit?
The study found that the attempt of mental visualization stimulates frontal networks, which is important for interest, awareness and working memory, as well as the left spinning spinning, located on the bottom side of the temporal lobe. It also stimulates the ventral cortex areas participating in identifying messages, visualizing the face, and treating colors.
Among the dedicated individuals – even if they have not reported any experience in mental images – these areas themselves were also activated, but with a decrease in job communication. In other words, these areas have continued less efficiently than in people with typical mental images.
These preliminary results support a hypothesis that was already seen by researchers: the quality of the visual experience, whether based on perception or imagination, depends on the integration of information between the frontal and spuric networks and the visual visualization networks. The left front shell may play a causal role in awareness of these visual experiences.
“This may explain why people of fans are still kept with an accurate visual knowledge of the beings. For example, they clearly remember that spinach is green darker than lettuce,” Leo notes.
Future studies will help determine whether the glove is manifested in the same way for all affected individuals or whether there are sub -species associated with various reasons.
In addition to highlighting the intense contrast in how to try the world, research on glove shows that mental images are not a prerequisite for thinking, imagination, perception or creativity. Ultimately, these studies may illuminate relationships between mental images, perception, memory and nervous development.
Finance: This study was funded by Dassault Systèmes.
About this research news APHANTASIA
author: Paulo Bartolomeo
source: Paris Institute of Brain
communication: Paulo Bartolomeo – Paris Institute of Brain
image: The image is attributed to news of neuroscience
The original search: Open access.
“Live without pictures – congenital ovensia“Janghao Liu et al. Dandruff
Open access.
“The inception of the anterior front that leads to a conscious perception“Janghao Liu et al. Trends in knowledge sciences
a summary
Live without pictures – congenital ovensia
Visual images, for most of us, are a clear component of the daily experience, and played a prominent role in memory, awakening and creativity. Galton, who was a pioneer in the quantitative study of visual images with the famous “breakfast survey”, reported a wide variation in his own life (Galton, 1880).
In fact, some participants described “no power to perceive.” This phenomenon received little attention, although Faw has informed that 2.1-2.7 % of 2500 participants “do not demand visual imagination” (Faw, 2009).
The experience of volunteer images is related to activity in “executive” systems in the front and in the rear brain areas that enable us together to generate images on the basis of our knowledge of manifestations (Bartolomeo, 2008). The relative contributions of low and higher visual areas are discussed in the visual images experience (Bartolomeo, 2008).
Clinical reports indicate that there are two main types of weak nerve visual images: 1) visual memory disorders, causing both visual ausia and loss of images, and II) “generating images” selectively disrupts the images (Farah, 1984).
In 2010, we reported a particularly “pure” condition of the disorder of images, in a 65 -year -old man who was unable to call the photos to the eye of the mind after the coronary et al., 2010.
After a common description of our paper (Zimmer, 2010), we were contacted by more than twenty people who realized themselves in the article’s account of “blind imagination”, with the important difference whose weak pictures were for life.
Here are half the advantages of their condition, they were deduced by a questionnaire, and we suggest a name – Lantasia – This is a bad recognized phenomenon.
a summary
The inception of the anterior front that leads to a conscious perception
Recent human registrations within the intelligence reveal that the front -ranging front circles (SNF) has critical contributions, in the hemisphere in the conscious perception.
Right -half networks are essential to determine the priorities of attention to attention; The left -ball areas contribute to cognitive decisions and build models. This insecurity confirms and determines clinical evidence of patients ’neglect.
2025-06-09 12:29:00
