L’aphantasie peut-elle être causée par un mauvais alignement des yeux ?

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J’ai récemment commencé à soupçonner que je souffrais d’un dysfonctionnement de la vision binoculaire et je me suis demandé si c’était la raison pour laquelle j’avais du mal à visualiser. Apparemment, lorsque les yeux sont mal alignés, ils exercent une pression supplémentaire sur le système visuel, ce qui entraîne des effets neurologiques tels que la sensibilité à la lumière et des maux de tête. J’ai commencé à me renseigner et j’ai trouvé ce témoignage en ligne d’un homme de 70 ans qui a spontanément développé un œil de l’esprit après avoir renforcé sa vision binoculaire. Je suis en train de me faire évaluer pour savoir si je suis effectivement atteint de la maladie de von Willebrand. Si c’est le cas, j’essaierai les lunettes à prisme ou la thérapie visuelle et je ferai un rapport. Bien qu’il faille plus de temps pour développer la capacité de visualiser.

En plus de l’histoire de cet homme, un autre homme affirme avoir appris à visualiser après avoir pratiqué ce que l’on appelle le ” streaming d’images“, qui consiste à se frotter les yeux. Il est intéressant de noter que le frottement des yeux et le maintien de la tête peuvent tous deux augmenter la pression dans les yeux, ce qui peut entraîner un certain réalignement. Je me demande si cela permet une meilleure fusion des images, réduisant ainsi la pression sur le système visuel et libérant des ressources pour des tâches visuelles de plus haut niveau, comme l’œil de l’esprit.

Cela pourrait expliquer pourquoi la plupart des aphantasies sont congénitales. Quelqu’un pourrait peut-être l’acquérir pour des raisons similaires. Je ne sais pas si la chirurgie modifie la pression oculaire, mais c’est peut-être ce qui est arrivé au patient mx dans l’étude originale sur l’aphantasie.

Quoi qu’il en soit, je suis curieux de savoir ce que les autres en pensent. Cela semble assez facile à étudier.

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I just wanted to add that I don’t think this is the only factor at play just that eye alignment could be significant for some people. There are probably a fair number of people who can visualize despite having  misaligned eyes. Also, some might have a malignant due to trauma like a car crash and have little consequence to their vitalization ability.

Obviously I could be wrong about the whole thing 😂

Ive never been able to see a clear image out of binoculars using both eyes. For image to focus when using binoculars I have to close one eye. Its been like that my whole life.  I hadn’t even considered that there could be a reason for that, let alone that that could potentially be related to my Aphantasia…!

Mind you my eyes are far from good regardless – am short sighted, just like the majority of my relatives on my fathers side are. As well as having astigmatism! 

 

I have an update. After posting this I tried a strange set of visual exercises I found on youtube. It took 5 minutes to complete and I thought nothing of it. After, I went outside for a walk, put on my sunglasses (my eyes are sensitive to light) and my vision was transformed. Apparently I lived my whole life without depth perception and had no idea. No one ever suspected anything was wrong with my eyes (including during my regular visits to the optometrist) and my field of view was fused. My mind is absolutely blown.

Today is my fourth day doing the exercises and the effect is becoming more natural. My in depth vision exam is scheduled for a week from now. I’ll update this post if I learn anything interesting.

I have a form of congenital amblyopia in one eye. I have always known this; it presents as incomplete visual acuity when using that eye only). So when I discovered (yesterday at the age of 66!) that I have aphantasia I naturally thought the two could be related. But I’m not sure and wouldn’t be surprised if they were not. BTW I had the classic moment of realisation that other people actually form pictures —I thought  the “mind’s eye” was a non-visual construct of image-based knowledge and memory. 

I’m not sure if I want to be “cured” and be able to imagine things. It is peaceful in the dark. 

I don’t see how any physical changes to the eyes would change how the brain perceives imagination. Interesting. 

Maybe I will try it. 

The eye exercises video is good. I know people have used those for things like balance, physical therapy, lazy eye, and various other things. 

An interesting idea… I kind of doubt it can be “fixed”, especially since the brain seems to develop tons of different way s to do things, but I do have a “lazier” eye between my two (intermittent exotropia). If I’m tired or relaxed, my brain focuses over to my left eye and lets the right drift out of sync, mostly ignoring it, so maybe there is at least some trend worth considering?

The image-streaming method uses pressure on eyeballs to “prime” imagery mechanisms by adding external stimulation as a prompt.

In any event, I have had thoughts similar to yours.   There is a natural asymmetry between function of my two eyes, one of which was nearsighted and one far-sighted.  I wondered if this might predispose me to absence of imagery.   

Along similar lines, I and have also wondered whether practice learning to see “3D” images when viewing autostereograms  (cf the “magic eye” books) might be useful in cultivating imagery.

If you wouldn’t mind, please send me a message when you are ready to comment about the results of your vision therapy experiment.

Marjorie Schuman   Aphasia member #4883 on DISCORD platform

I find this line of thought intriguing. My eyes differ greatly in strength and I had surgery to correct a left “lazy eye” as an infant. An eye exam doctor casually mentioned to me decades ago that I probably see movies in “3D” with very minimal to no 3D and that I probably can’t get hidden images to “pop” out of the background no matter how long I look at them (I forgot what those are called but they were popular back then). I was astounded at the time when this eye doctor mentioned this because that was exactly my experience. Perhaps this corrective eye surgery (or the condition that necessitated it) are related to aphantasia.