Rewiring How I Work & Learn as a Multisensory Aphantasic — I Built a Sense-by-Sense Scoring System to Find My Gaps & Superpowers

I'm 54 and just discovered I have multisensory aphantasia. Which means I've spent decades trying to learn and work using strategies designed for people whose brains work nothing like mine.

So I'm starting over. This week I'm running experiments on my work environment, my learning process, and how I absorb and retain information — all designed around my actual sensory profile instead of someone else's.

I've built a baseline assessment of my aphantasia — sense by sense — including where I'm fully offline, where I have partial capacity, and where I've developed surprising strengths. I've also mapped out my blind spots and superpowers for each sense. I'll share that here and update it as I go.

First experiment: using a book I'm currently listening to as a test case for building an external knowledge architecture — since I can't store information internally the way most people do, I need to build it outside my head in a way I can navigate.

Would love to hear from others — especially around: • What work or learning setups have actually worked for you? • How do you retain and organize information without internal imagery? • What strategies did you throw out that everyone swore by?

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Heather Namias•recently•edited

I sing a melody to remember things.

Jennifer Durante•recently•edited

Hi David, I am 49 and just learned last fall that I too have multi sensory aphantasia and discovered this site just this morning. Wow would life had been different if schools actually assessed learning abilities and styles early on (if ever) — especially when we grew up. My assessment is similar to yours. Find I am mostly a 0 or a 9 or 10 versus anything in between. I did split out time between body clock and planning b/c I barely have a body clock but I am exceptional with time. Short version: Fully offline (0–2/10): Visual imagery, sound, smell, taste, touch, episodic memory Partial (3–5/10): Circadian/body clock Online (6–10/10): Inner voice, spatial navigation, kinesthetic movement, semantic/logical thinking, time/planning, interoception (body awareness), emotional processing Interested in what you learn and which strategies you identify. My strategies have definitely included note taking to commit to memory and for easy access/recall if needed, lists, lots of lists. And I guess my superpower is extremely strong intuition/gut. I assess and mentally organize information and identify next steps quicker than most around me and my trust in that assessment allows me to fly by the seat of my pants in life. I don't think that any strategies in particular contributed but I would assume my need to find an alternate way to be successful honed this skill early on. My blind spot is probably in how I approach others - I don't take into account that they may be feeling emotions so viscerally… I come in as an immediate problem-solver. Has to be jarring for those who just want to be heard. Good luck in your journey.

Megan Schmidt•recently•edited

Your numbers feel pretty aligned with how I’d score myself. Fully offline (0–2/10): Visual imagery, sound, smell, taste, touch, episodic memory Partial (3–5/10): Circadian/body clock Online (6–10/10): Inner voice, spatial navigation, kinesthetic movement, semantic/logical thinking, time/planning, interoception (body awareness), emotional processing I do not have an issue imaging how other people feel though. I am strongly empathic and feel how they feel in the moment. I can also imagine how something would feel. But nothing on hearing imagines sounds, seeing imagined images etc.

David Bruce Douglas•recently•edited

Here's my assessment (DRAFT). I'm using this to understand where I fall short, excel and what tools I can use differently to perform better. I suspect that multi-sensory Aphantasia also drive ADHD. A brain that is not 'entertained' by internal sensors (auditory, visual, etc.) is less active and will seek alternate strategies to stay active (in my case I day dream a lot). So staying in the present and locking in is critical. Let's see how a different work set-up can help. I built a sense-by-sense assessment comparing my internal experience to neurotypical baseline — rated 0–10 — then mapped blind spots and superpowers for each. Here's the short version: Fully offline (0–2/10): Visual imagery, phonological inner voice, smell, taste Partial (2–5/10): Auditory, tactile, spatial, episodic memory, organic/bodily Online (5–10/10): Kinesthetic movement, semantic self-monitoring, time, interoception, emotional/somatic Biggest blind spot: I can't pre-experience bad outcomes — no vivid anticipation of pain, failure, or danger. Makes me high risk tolerance but potentially blind to real warning signals. Biggest superpower: Emotion is my operating system. Everything routes through it. And my interoception (knowing how my body feels, etc.) is unusually sharp.