Jean-Pierre Mooney (pictured) knows the colour of his girlfriend鈥檚 hair and eyes, but he just can鈥檛 picture her face. 鈥淚f she went missing and the police asked me to draw a sketch, I wouldn鈥檛 know how,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 like sorcery for me.鈥�
The 34-year-old from Brisbane, Australia, was born without a mind鈥檚 eye, meaning he can鈥檛 create mental images. The official name of his condition is aphantasia, and it is thought to affect about 2 per cent of the population.
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Mooney didn鈥檛 realise there was anything unusual about him, until he read about a study of people with aphantasia in 2015. 鈥淚 asked all my friends, 鈥榗an you see stuff in your minds?鈥� and they said 鈥榶es鈥�. I had no idea.鈥�
The revelation helped to explain his poor sense of direction and tendency to forget where he had parked his car. 鈥淔loor numbers were made for people like me,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 remember landmarks.鈥�
On the plus side, Mooney rarely feels anxious. He believes this is because he struggles to imagine bad things happening in the future or relive negative experiences from the past. 鈥淚f you ask me to imagine a plane crash, it doesn鈥檛 really affect me, because I can鈥檛 see it happening,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just words.鈥�
Nevertheless, since learning of his condition, Mooney has been searching for a cure. 鈥淣ow that I know I鈥檓 missing out, I want to know what it鈥檚 like to have a mind鈥檚 eye.鈥�
Mooney has become involved in research by Joel Pearson at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who is investigating how mental imagery works by studying people with aphantasia.
Because some people with aphantasia do experience dreams, the researchers believe that different brain areas control voluntary and involuntary mental imagery. Others have reported hallucinations when they take psychoactive drugs.
鈥淚 dream in incredible detail,鈥� says Mooney. 鈥淏ut when I wake up, I can鈥檛 recall the images, just the details,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ometimes when I鈥檓 just about to fall asleep, I almost catch an image, but as soon as I realise, it fades away.鈥�
One finding of Pearson鈥檚 team is that people with aphantasia often have good spatial imagery: they can rotate shapes in their minds, even though they can鈥檛 visualise them. To do this they seem to use compensatory mechanisms, like imagining how the shape would feel if they turned it in their hands.
The team has also found that applying an electric current to the scalp seems to increase the strength of mental imagery in people without aphantasia. The next step will be to test whether the technique can be used to induce visual images in people with aphantasia. 鈥淚鈥檓 really hoping it works,鈥� says Mooney. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 even imagine how amazing that would be鈥�.
