Close your eyes. Seriously, do it for a second. Now, picture an apple in your head.
What do you actually see? For some of you, it’s a high-definition, 4K rendering of a Granny Smith, complete with little wax droplets and a brown stem. Others see a fuzzy, red blob that looks more like a tomato than fruit. And then there is a specific group of people who see absolutely nothing but the back of their eyelids.
Blackness. Void. Zero pixels.
This isn't a lack of imagination. It’s a neurological phenomenon called Aphantasia. It sounds like a made-up word from a fantasy novel, but it’s a very real cognitive variation that affects about 1% to 4% of the population. For decades, we just assumed everyone "saw" things the same way inside their skulls. We were wrong.
The "Apple Test" went viral because it forced us to realize that the person sitting next to us might be experiencing a completely different reality in their "mind's eye." If I ask you to imagine a beach, I’m not just asking for a concept; I’m asking your brain to fire up its internal projector. But what happens when the projector is broken—or was never installed in the first place?
The Scale of Internal Imagery
The 1-to-5 scale is the most common way people talk about this online. It’s basically a spectrum of vividness. On one end, you have Hyperphantasia. These folks don't just see the apple; they can rotate it, take a bite out of it, and smell the tartness. It’s basically VR without the headset. On the other end is Aphantasia.
In between, most people land somewhere around a 3 or 4. They see a "ghost" of an image. It’s there, but it’s transparent or lacks fine detail.
I talked to a guy once who didn't realize he had aphantasia until he was 30. He thought "counting sheep" was just a metaphor. He’d lie in bed and literally count numbers in his head because he didn't realize other people were actually seeing fluffy animals jumping over fences. Imagine the shock of realizing your friends are watching internal movies while you’re just reading a script.
📖 Related: Dr. Sharon Vila Wright: What You Should Know About the Houston OB-GYN
Dr. Adam Zeman, a professor of cognitive and behavioral neurology at the University of Exeter, is the man who actually coined the term Aphantasia in 2015. He started investigating this after a patient, known in the literature as "Patient MX," lost his ability to visualize after a minor surgical procedure. MX could still recognize faces and describe the layout of his house, but the "pictures" were gone.
How Your Brain Actually Creates Images
When you try to picture an apple in your head, your brain is performing a complex back-and-forth dance. Normally, when you look at a real apple, light hits your retina, sends signals to the primary visual cortex at the back of your brain, and you "see."
But visualization is a top-down process.
Your frontal cortex—the part involved in planning and memory—reaches back to the visual processing areas and tells them to "play" a memory. It’s like a boss giving an order to the art department. In people with aphantasia, the boss is shouting, but the art department isn't picking up the phone. Or maybe they’re sending a memo instead of a drawing.
Interestingly, people with aphantasia often have perfectly functional spatial memory. You can ask them "how many windows are in your house?" and they’ll get it right. They don't see the windows, but they know where they are. It’s like navigating a dark room you know by heart. You don't need to see the furniture to know it's there.
The Creative Myth
There is this huge misconception that if you can't visualize, you can't be creative. That’s total nonsense.
Glen Keane, the legendary Disney animator who designed The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, has aphantasia. Think about that for a second. One of the greatest visual artists of our time can’t "see" his characters in his head before he draws them. He describes his process as a "feeling" of the line and the character's soul rather than a mental photograph.
👉 See also: Why Meditation for Emotional Numbness is Harder (and Better) Than You Think
Ed Catmull, the co-founder of Pixar and former president of Walt Disney Animation Studios, also has aphantasia. He even surveyed his employees and found that many world-class artists couldn't visualize for beans.
Why Aphantasia Isn't a Disability
It’s just a different way of processing information. Some researchers suggest that people with aphantasia might even be better at certain types of abstract or logical thinking because they aren't distracted by "mental clutter."
If you ask me to think about a traumatic event, and I have hyperphantasia, I might literally re-experience the visual horror of it. It’s vivid. It’s visceral. But someone with aphantasia might process the event more through facts and feelings without the intrusive imagery. Studies have actually shown that people with aphantasia show less of a physiological fear response (like sweaty palms) when reading scary stories compared to visualizers.
Beyond the Apple: The Other Senses
We focus on the apple because humans are visual creatures. But "mental imagery" isn't just about eyes.
Can you hear "Bohemian Rhapsody" in your head right now? Can you hear Freddy Mercury’s voice clearly? That’s auditory imagery. Some people have "Anauralia," which is the inability to hear sounds in their mind. They don't have an internal monologue or a "voice" they talk to themselves with.
Then there’s taste and smell. Some people can "mentally taste" a lemon and actually start salivating. Others... nothing. It’s just a concept of sourness.
Identifying Where You Stand
If you’re wondering where you fit, researchers use something called the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). It asks you to imagine a series of scenes—a sunrise, a shop you visit often, a friend's face—and rate the clarity.
✨ Don't miss: Images of Grief and Loss: Why We Look When It Hurts
- No image at all (you only "know" you are thinking of the object).
- Vague and dim.
- Moderately clear.
- Clear and lively.
- Perfectly clear and as vivid as real seeing.
If you’re a 1, welcome to the Aphantasia club. If you’re a 5, you’re in the Hyperphantasia camp. Most of us are toggling between 3 and 4.
The fascinating part is that even "aphants" (as they call themselves) often dream in pictures. This suggests the hardware for making images exists in their brains, but they lack the "conscious remote control" to turn it on while they're awake. Dreaming is a bottom-up process; the brain fires off signals while we sleep that the visual cortex interprets. Visualization is top-down. That’s the key difference.
Actionable Insights for the Mind’s Eye
Whether you see a shiny Red Delicious or a black void, there are ways to work with your brain’s specific wiring.
If you have Aphantasia:
- Externalize everything. Since you can’t "see" your goals or plans, use mood boards, sketches, and physical lists.
- Focus on spatial relationships. Use your strength in "where" things are rather than "what" they look like.
- Don't stress about meditation. Many meditation guides tell you to "visualize a ball of light." If that doesn't work for you, switch to "feeling" the breath or focusing on physical sensations.
If you have Hyperphantasia:
- Manage your "mental load." You can get easily overwhelmed by too much visual stimulation or intrusive negative thoughts because they are so "real."
- Use your gift for learning. You can literally "re-watch" lectures or "re-read" pages in your head.
- Practice grounding. If you get stuck in a mental loop of a bad memory, physically touch things around you to remind your brain of the difference between the "movie" and reality.
If you’re an Artist/Creator:
- Reference is king. If you can’t visualize, don't feel guilty about using 1,000 reference photos. You aren't "cheating"; you're just providing your brain with the data it can't generate internally.
Ultimately, trying to picture an apple in your head is just a doorway. It’s a way to realize that the internal landscape of the human mind is as varied as the external world. We aren't all running the same software. Understanding your "mind's eye" (or lack thereof) helps you stop fighting against your brain and start working with it.
If you want to dive deeper, look up the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ). Taking the full test can give you a much more nuanced view than just the apple meme. You might find out your "mental hearing" is incredible even if your "mental sight" is blurry. Knowledge of your own cognitive style is the first step toward better learning and mental health.
Check your local library or Google Scholar for the latest papers by Joel Pearson at the University of New South Wales. He’s doing some of the most cutting-edge work on how "mental imagery" impacts our emotions and decision-making today.