KERA's Think

Why some people can’t picture stuff in their heads

Dec 12, 2025
Larissa MacFarquhar, a staff writer for The New Yorker and expert on human behavior, delves into aphantasia, a condition where individuals cannot visualize mental images. She discusses the emotional impact of this inability, from curiosity to profound loss, and its historical obscurity. Larissa reveals how aphantasia affects memory and daily life, including challenges with face recognition and its potential ties to trauma. She also explores increasingly vivid imagery in hyperphantasia and shares insights on the search for treatments, highlighting the variety of human experiences.
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INSIGHT

Hidden Mind Differences

  • Aphantasia is the inability to form mental images and was named in 2015 by neurologist Adam Zeman.
  • Many people with aphantasia simply assumed
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