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Mind Processing Area for no images

OK – first day member:

I discovered Aphantasia maybe 5 years ago. My wife would talk about how she pictured this or that. I thought nothing about it for years but then began to really question her about her pictures and movies ….. it took a while but then I decided to Google the situation and behold!!

So, this may be discussed some where on the website, if so please point me to the discussion, but I would like to know if anyone else has a mind processing area like I have (MPA for short). It might be best for me to state I can rarely conjure up any pictures, even when dreaming. If I need to think about an image or process i do it in my MPA. Now I don't overtly do this for everything, or most thing. Example, I can add numbers in the MPA by thinking about them, say I want to add 64 and 55. I can put them in the MPA and think about then in a column and add them. I could also put my car in the MPA and think my way around the car. For example, yes I know where my license plates are and can "picture" that but if I do it through my MPA, it opens a thinking process that open a "view" of the whole car. For example when I use The MPA to "picture" the rear license plate, I think about the whole back of the car. Also I don't "picture" or "view" like none aphantsica's do. So, what word replace 'picture" and "view". Also, again point me to any discussion on this subject, thanks. Joe

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Jennifer McDougall
on April 10, 2024

Hey Joesph, I would like to understand this idea of a “mind processing area” better. Could you provide a helpful resource? I haven’t seen/heard this discussed in our community before, but perhaps some helpful language to describe your non-visual experience might be that you “conceptualize” your car or can create an “abstraction” of its details. Here’s an article by Tom Ebeyer on abstract thinking in aphantasia you might find helpful in your discovery https://aphantasia.com/article/strategies/abstract-thinking/

Joseph Dana
on November 14, 2024

Hi Jennifer, just noticed your reply and thank you for it. I think my concept of a Mind Processing Area (MPA) is the result of abstract or type thinking. I will try to define my MPA with an example. I know my car has a small dent on the drivers door. Since I have aphantasia, I don’t have a picture to recall. But I can “think” about my drivers side door, in so doing, I create an abstract picture which contains all the details I can remember. The picture is not true, just an abstract thought. That thought is as detailed as my memory will allow. I put that thought in my MFA where I can “think” about it as if it were a real picture. The problem is that I could easily contaminate the thought, where a picture from memory SHOULD be true.