Mind’s Eye

Picture what you had for breakfast this morning. What do you see? Can you visualize the package it came in? How full the glass was? Where it sat on the table as you ate? The ability to conjure an image in your “mind’s eye” is something most of us take for granted. But many people simply can’t. They have no mind’s eye. Neurologist Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter in England was the first researcher to discover just how widespread this condition is. Five years ago he gave it a scientific name—aphantasia.