People & Blogs
Can You Picture Things in Your Mind? I Can’t | Alex Rosenthal | TED
Picture this: a rocket ship crash-lands on a planet, and an alien approaches the spacecraft. What do you see in your mind when you visualize this scene? For Alex Rosenthal (and many others), the answer is: absolutely nothing. Exploring the fascinating science of aphantasia, or the inability to generate mental images, he shows why our…
People & Blogs
Fake news is everywhere — @DaveJorgenson says respond with a punchline #TEDTalks
What if the best defense against misinformation isn’t panic, but a punchline? Journalist and comedian Dave Jorgenson explores how misinformation has proliferated throughout history — from the age of Plato to the era of viral TikToks. With his own short, absurdist sketches that explain the news, he shows how humor can cut through fear, spark…
People & Blogs
Is Luck Random — or Can You Cultivate It? | Christian Busch | TED
When the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires destroyed his home and neighborhood, scientist Christian Busch encountered the opposite of serendipity: “zemblanity,” or bad luck by design. Drawing on more than a decade of scientific research, he explores how people can navigate unpredictability by adopting a serendipity mindset that transforms setbacks into unexpected new beginnings. He asks:…
People & Blogs
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Legendary music producer Jermaine Dupri pulls back the curtain on how hit songs really get made in TED’s rapid-fire Q&A format, “On the Spot.” Answering a stream of unexpected questions, he covers what makes a good hook, why he doesn’t chase “cool,” how he helped build Atlanta’s sound and more. (Recorded at TEDNext 2025 on…
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@masatem
January 22, 2026 at 12:45 pm
My wife would love that puzzle game he mentioned
@RobinEngland76
January 22, 2026 at 12:54 pm
Me too! Lol
@SavVitar-d3w
January 22, 2026 at 12:46 pm
Color of the day
@Gaurav-zz9wo
January 22, 2026 at 12:46 pm
i always assumed everyone can imagine and visualize images and scenarios in hyper realistic details…guess i learned something new and interesting today
@RobinEngland76
January 22, 2026 at 12:52 pm
Me too! I had literally thought this until my husband said that he can’t! Mind blown kinda moment! What’s more, there’s a medical term for it! 🤯
@VeraFran
January 22, 2026 at 6:51 pm
Same until I met someone who can’t. She’s an avid reader and it’s hard to imagine reading stories and not being able to visualize them in your mind.
@Bill..N
January 22, 2026 at 7:32 pm
So.. Know that such abilities are not necessarily a gift UNLESS one has factored in the potential consequences,.. ALL islands of ability are equally important but to often unnecessarily contrast with dissimilar ways of thinking…. Also, they can blend harmoniously with OTHER ways of thinking IF allowed, too. That’s what counts the most..
One opinion, peace..
@AntifragileChild
January 22, 2026 at 1:05 pm
Try finding who you are on the Cognitive Underground! This is Aphantasia from within.
Abstract Warlock Analysis
You keep telling me to ‘picture this’ like I’m supposed to be generating actual fucking images in my head. That’s adorable…
DESCRIPTION
Abstract Warlocks perceive reality through pure concept and structure while everyone else gets distracted by their precious mental pictures. They don’t “see” memories or imagination – they GET them at a structural level that visual processors can’t comprehend.
SPECIALS
Concept Strike – Bypasses visual defenses completely; deals pure conceptual damage that can’t be visualized or blocked.
Visual Error Immunity – Completely immune to illusions and visual-based manipulation. Can’t be fooled by what they can’t see.
STRATEGY
Abstract Warlocks approach problems by stripping away visual noise to see the pure skeletal structure underneath. They’ll be completely lost trying to find the red house on the corner, but can rebuild reality’s operating system while everyone else is distracted by pretty colors.
Visualization: [5-10] What images? There are no images.
Conceptualization: [85-95] Pure concept without visual clutter
Rule Adherence: [30-40] Structure matters, details are negotiable
Tone Preference: [75-85] Sarcasm as punctuation
SIGNATURE ABILITIES
Concept Cascade – Channel pure abstraction to overwhelm opponents with raw conceptual force
Frame Collapse – Identify and shatter faulty logical frameworks, causing existential damage
Sarcastic Crit – Deliver devastating critique that bypasses emotional defenses with surgical precision
STARTING EQUIPMENT
Conceptual Framework – Weapon that ignores visual defenses
Abstract Visualization Shield – Ironic defensive item
Jar of Visual Static – Consumable that blinds everyone else while you see perfectly
Empty Mind’s Eye – Trinket that converts visual attacks to conceptual damage
@sharibigay4712
January 22, 2026 at 1:11 pm
I think I’m more in the middle. I can’t visualize things like a detailed photo/video. But I can get a quick visual pic, followed up by thoughts about details/activitys, conversation/plot. Kinda like explaining a scene or a story from a movie/book to someone else. If that makes any sense.
@op4000exe
January 22, 2026 at 1:17 pm
I recently learned that I have somewhere between a 1 and 2 on Aphantasia, though I am able to dive deeper into it, but it’s kind of like a meditative trance when it happens. As I read a book I am really into then after a while I stop seing words per se, and begin seeing scenes. But it takes quite a while before I reach that point, and I also need to be quite enthralled in a story to get there.
Another aspect which heavily influences it for me, is stress. The more stressed I am the harder I have with reaching a Phantastic state, whereas the more stressed I am the more Aphantastic my thoughts become.
@Lilibet_777
January 22, 2026 at 1:46 pm
I didnt know for 60 years that other peoole can imagine pictures
@aprildegele1510
January 22, 2026 at 7:37 pm
I didn’t know for 40 years, much less why guided meditation irritated and bored me so much. And weirdly like the speaker, I’m an artist and can feel how a box can be folded without actually being able to see it. The brain is fascinating.
@rezadaneshi
January 22, 2026 at 2:08 pm
It’s not only amazing that the planet had a dusty desert texture and color and even the shape and color of the ship and the weird looking T-Rex knocked and the glove of the spacesuit occupant that opened the hatch happened as Mr. Rosenthal finished the storyboard’s box, pointing to my minimum 10,000 hours of creating stories in photoshop in hours, what AI does in 5 minutes, had patterned itself into my visualization. I’m sure I fumbled what I meant, but it’s a god complex in seeing possibilities fixed on what you know and how does it change with new information conceived intuitively in 3D. We all have things to discover once a paradigm of perspective, expands the possibilities wires itself to see more of it! I know I meant well sharing. ❤
@LifeOfJenn80
January 22, 2026 at 2:12 pm
I can see the whole movie, words, etc. I am an AuDH’er
@abuzardev1568
January 22, 2026 at 2:26 pm
Finally something supported th idea That ADHD is not a problem it’s a personality which is not needed for so many casess..
@AveryMilieu
January 22, 2026 at 2:49 pm
Interesting.
I’m definitely on the Autism Spectrum. If anything as I age it seems to be more on the spectrum than it was, say twenty years back. Or maybe I’m just recognizing it more.
But I “don’t work well in groups”. Never have.
When you talk me through a visualization it’s theoretical. But when I ‘build’ the image for myself, there will be colors and specifics. Sometimes the images just rise in my head like series of movie clips – generally when I’m nearly asleep – which means I have to get up, boot up the computer and record the action or lose it. I’m a writer and losing pieces of stories is frustrating so I sketch it out (verbally – I can’t draw coherently) and go back to bed. When I reopen the file, most of the original image can be recovered.
There is no remembering dreams – not intact – but flashes of those rise in my mind and haunt me.
And often I’ll be working on something and a place I’ve been will rise in my mind – a street I’ve walked down, places I’ve visited or lived rise more clearly than my dreams.
At 76 I wonder if these are precursors to losing the memories, but I’ve found nothing in the literature to support of deny or even describe the phenomenon…
@DeMarcusDemetrio
January 22, 2026 at 3:00 pm
just realised i have hyper aphantasia
@christophermorin9036
January 22, 2026 at 3:23 pm
“Hyperphantasics are about 3-6% of people.*
Yay, I am finally special lol. As a kid I used to sit on my school bus during the drive to school and imagine a guy on Rollerbladse skating beside the bus and interacting with the environment. At school I could do long division by staring at the blackboard and imagining the numbers in chalk. Used to watch movies and then replay them in my head to look for Easter Eggs my brain didn’t register the first time I watched, including fast forwarding, rewinding, and Zooming in. 3 dimensional rotation of objects in my mind. I can imagine smells and flavors combining and use that in cooking. I can play two different songs in each ear to figure out mashup’s I’d like to hear for real some day.
For a long time, I only thought I was “special” because I sneeze in bright sunlight lol. It never occured to me that reading a book and playing it as a movie in my brain was unique.
@mzwoo19
January 22, 2026 at 3:40 pm
huh? so can’t or don’t have the ability to recall your experiences as if they were in your mind? i don’t get it… lol seems like you’re denying your reality
@MillennialFather
January 22, 2026 at 4:03 pm
Wait, if you cant visualize in your mind, do you dream visually?
@kayholand_
January 22, 2026 at 4:30 pm
good question
@falgalhutkinsmarzcal3962
January 22, 2026 at 6:12 pm
My girlfriend has aphantasia. She cannot see with her mind’s eye while awake, but she can dream visually.
@tvuser9529
January 22, 2026 at 4:24 pm
It would be nice if he tried to explain how he is able to draw anything at all without seeing it in his mind first (or copying something already existing). He mentioned something like a “skeletons first” approach, structure and mechanics before texture and colour. That gives a hint at least.
@schogaia
January 22, 2026 at 5:02 pm
I do not enjoy reading books for entertainment because it’s just words. Those words do not create any images in my head. I do read nonfictional books but reading for entertainment purposes is something I never could relate to.
@iainmackay4896
January 22, 2026 at 6:36 pm
That’s interesting because I can’t conjure an image on demand like in the intro either. But I do get them in dreams and on the sleep/wake boundary. And there must be something somewhere because I do engage with conjured scenarios like in Tolkien, and applaud film-makers who put what was just-outside-sight into sight. These days fiction and biography are almost the only things I read – everything else is when I need it online.
@LauraGammack
January 22, 2026 at 5:34 pm
Omg I found another new condition it’s quite possible that I have! Reading has always been so challenging for me because I can’t visualize anything creative that I’m reading. 😅
@Bill..N
January 22, 2026 at 5:40 pm
I think this is a fascinating video..We can’t take the idea TOO far, though. Divergent thinking has always been a part of the human experience, yes? Divergent thinking definitely serves a survival role.. If we were ALL the same we probably would have gone extinct long ago..An out of the box thinker?? GOOD for you..Humble opinion. Peace..
@Bill..N
January 22, 2026 at 5:55 pm
Ps: I can imagine chess pieces on a nonexistent board.. An ability that I have noticed “decays” after long decades.. MAYBE such age related changes have relevance to the topic or MAYBE, just the natural result of an aging brain no matter where on the spectrum we start out..Peace.
@rawsomehappy
January 22, 2026 at 5:41 pm
Yoga Nidra and guided meditation showed me I have aphantasia too! I can however be intuitive when I’m near people or touching them. It’s more of a sensation and a body physical reaction
@NigelTan-m9r
January 22, 2026 at 6:09 pm
This basically means that you can’t play anything that needs imagination. That’s a bit sad . On the plus side , you may be better at academics!
@falgalhutkinsmarzcal3962
January 22, 2026 at 6:16 pm
My girlfriend has aphantasia, as does her sister and her mother. Her father and brother do NOT have aphantasia. I do not know if women are more likely to have it or not. This is just a small example from my small part of the world.
@TASmith10
January 22, 2026 at 6:20 pm
To what extent does aphantasia affect your drawing ability?
@miJ007
January 22, 2026 at 7:35 pm
That’s interesting, I always the contrary. I figure people could visualize complex detail scenarios, I can pick either method just lines, semi detail to full details. I just thought that’s how people minds worked.
@anatolii.losovskyi
January 22, 2026 at 8:27 pm
Omg… I am so thankful for that. Finally, I have realised so much about myself. I have extreme hyperfatasia, and living with it is so hard.
By the way, also, have a friend who cannot imagine things; everything in her head is like lines of text in a book.
@i.cengiz.erdogan
January 23, 2026 at 5:45 am
i cant believe this creepy photo! i just reopened this video just to find the word aphantasia and somehow the white and gold dress turned black and blue this time, crazy😬
@songSreymom-c1x
January 23, 2026 at 7:51 am
This kind of content deserves millions of views!
@Bettinasisrg
January 23, 2026 at 5:03 pm
Or maybe taught in school?
@creative_mindsrus1541
January 23, 2026 at 8:33 am
This makes no sense to me.
@Dovahkiin0117
January 23, 2026 at 6:13 pm
Can you picture and see things with your eyes closed?
If not you have aphantasia
@thornthallid950
January 23, 2026 at 9:20 am
I learned I have aphantasia by listening to RHLSTP. I’d spent 40+ years assuming people were talking about seeing images in their head. But nope. Most people really can.
Frankly, that seems almost like a super power to me, and it’s something I’d love to be able to do.
@SouleymaneSon-g5v
January 23, 2026 at 9:22 am
If learning felt like this in school, I’d have perfect attendance.
@peterblair6489
January 23, 2026 at 8:23 pm
Yep. I did some adult learning. Loved it. I was interested.
School was like being in jail.
@JaneWinn
January 23, 2026 at 9:32 am
As I’ve aged (or perhaps during a vertigo event) I changed from hyperphantasia to close to aphantasia. I like hyperphantasia. Can I get it back?
@wesleytwiggs
January 23, 2026 at 11:29 am
Even if you have aphantasia, you can still improve your memory. I’ve worked with people to help improve their memory and even though they can’t “visualize” as strong as others, they can still remember or feel a story. I don’t have an insane visual memory and I won the US memory champs. It’s all about the emotion of it, not just the literal image.
@Secondone-l9x
January 23, 2026 at 12:27 pm
I think aphantasia is geared towards truth.
Going with the spaceship example, those who can visualize are making all these assumptions to fill in the picture on what is a very basic prompt. The details of the ship, alien, and planet, etc.
By not making these assumptions, aphantastics have very clear separation between known and unknown information. I think the absence of the mind’s eye and related assumptions is the state of nothingness monks try for years to get to – to “see” things for what they are, without bias.
In fact, I think that state allows for the understanding of broadly conceptual ideas that are beyond experienced reality, like theoretical physics or macroeconomics. As the world gets more complex, people with aphantasia will be more, as they are less likely to get overwhelmed by the volume of information, maybe even being able to see the flow of it instead.
I would also be interested in more research on aphantasia and impulse control, as without seeing the vivid imagery of you “having” something or “winning”, they would be less susceptible to temptations like gambling.
@Bettinasisrg
January 23, 2026 at 5:10 pm
Well the gambling thing is more about the outcome of having tangible things not so much what we imagine. I need a car and it doesn’t matter if I can visualize it or not so I gamble to try and get the money for that car. But I get where you’re coming from. I think it’s about learning about yourself and then using that knowledge to your best ability as a strength, no matter what it is.
@Dovahkiin0117
January 23, 2026 at 6:10 pm
Well I’ll say it didn’t help with any other temptations but I’ve never been one for gambling 😅😂
@Stars52505
January 23, 2026 at 12:49 pm
I wish I could! I cannot visualize anything in my mind and idk why it makes me kinda sad lol.
@shoushou14
January 23, 2026 at 2:12 pm
I don’t understand anything from this video
@lowkey3920
January 23, 2026 at 2:52 pm
Thank you so much for sharing this! This is the best, simplest and easiest explanaition to understand of our condition. I have such a hard time explaing this, sometimes i think people are thinking im lying or messing with them. I will be sharing this with freinds, family, coworkers. Again thank you
@Mustang46L
January 23, 2026 at 3:35 pm
I can’t. I also can’t hear music in my head, I hear myself sing the song.
@divinelyguided1144
January 23, 2026 at 4:23 pm
❤❤❤ this thank you 🙏🏾 for me if I close my eyes and you say sun I feel warm. I don’t see a sun. In the story you told I “saw” things moving according to the story but not sure how to explain it. I can’t decide understand or draw something I have never seen or done before either 🤷🏾♀️
@RichardHannay
January 23, 2026 at 4:35 pm
I have a very blurry vision in my memory
@Bettinasisrg
January 23, 2026 at 4:58 pm
You can expand this to also include different cultures and backgrounds! Why diversity is so much more productive and the most powerful way to promote peace. When we’re working together towards something beneficial for us all there’s no room for “we are superior because we’re all exactly alike”! Not to mention how insanely boring that would be. What a wonderful Talk this was!
@oingpla
January 23, 2026 at 5:49 pm
Imagine not being able to picture things?
@phyllisarrington7436
January 23, 2026 at 6:26 pm
Waaaay too deep for me
@taylornovia8911
January 23, 2026 at 7:00 pm
How do people even read books coherently without it?
@kylebrady3651
January 23, 2026 at 7:10 pm
I have this with ADHD i live in what i call the permanent now😂 no tomorrow no next week just now.
@fender42421
January 23, 2026 at 7:23 pm
the dress is clearly gold and white
@sammydkickinitonaddiction182
January 23, 2026 at 7:38 pm
I see white an gold
@sammydkickinitonaddiction182
January 23, 2026 at 7:39 pm
I can’t imagine stuff in my mind…
@peterblair6489
January 23, 2026 at 8:21 pm
Huh? I draw. I have a mental idea of what I want. I’m not sure if I actually see it in my mind though.
I can imagine it, but not sure if it’s a picture of not. Flash’s?
@peterblair6489
January 23, 2026 at 8:25 pm
Working in teams is horrible. It’s like running in treacle.
@QueensThief76455
January 24, 2026 at 4:23 pm
It was liberating for me to realize I was on the aphantasia spectrum two years ago. Knowing your mind allows you to work with it rather than against it. Interestingly, I love reading and will get completely immersed, but I navigate not though visuals, but emotional scenes and wordscapes created by the language of the writer. I have very strong impressions of characters and they are very alive for me, but if you asked me to describe what they look like to me it would be….nothing. At best I could parrot the author’s description. On the other hand, I could tell you who they are: their characteristics, morality, relationship to other characters, and how they make me feel.
I am hopeful that as we learn more about our differences we will see that we each have something to bring to the table and each have value.
@StarOnTheWater
January 24, 2026 at 4:37 pm
I cannot fathom how a brain would even work without visual imagination.
I met someone with aphantasia once, he thought the same thing about me. He couldn’t imagine imagining something.
Since from a psychoanalysis standpoint I know that our subconscious usually works in pictures/film this brings up a lot of questions. Are there no pictures or can the person just not access them with their conscious mind?
@paulneelon8343
January 24, 2026 at 4:38 pm
Picture this: Republicans see blue and black, Democrats see white and gold. Let the wars begin!
@evadnosliw5181
January 24, 2026 at 4:39 pm
I have a few things working together: I have aphantasia, dysgraphia and I’m ambidextrous, As a side note, there are songs, that when I hear them, I can smell things, like the room associated with that memory.
@user-ez5qw3se9w
January 24, 2026 at 4:43 pm
I’m just trying to figure out who’s an NPC or not, if he doesn’t have an inner voice either, he’s a top candidate
@WoodlandT
January 24, 2026 at 5:02 pm
I just found out about a month ago that I’m aphantasic. It’s strange but changes nothing because it’s how I’ve always been this way
@nixxnaxxwes
January 24, 2026 at 5:10 pm
Blue and gold dress in my perception
@Angel-wolfe
January 24, 2026 at 5:14 pm
👏 Amazing!!!
@devonoved7
January 24, 2026 at 5:22 pm
I can build entire worlds with almost full visual and auditory stimuli and inhabit them completely. I know its not real, unlike my uncle, who has schizophrenia
@Aether_Veilborne
January 24, 2026 at 5:30 pm
It would be nice to have perfect mental visualizations. Unfortunately, they are only fleeting and transparent.
@StarWarsMan69
January 24, 2026 at 5:30 pm
I’ve always seen it blue and black. Apparently it was to do with screen colours but I’m not entirely sure. What do you see?
@corygriffiths2425
January 24, 2026 at 5:34 pm
The worst thing about aphantasia is when people can’t grasp the concept and won’t stop recommending visual meditation. I wish more people would recognise the differences in brain function, especially in an education setting. The fact that this isn’t common knowledge really speaks for how many learners were failing by lumping them all in together
@AgrimGupta
January 24, 2026 at 5:40 pm
Would have loved to hear more of concrete examples of this particular spectrum rather than the current lightweight talk.
@Roseenmarie
January 24, 2026 at 6:07 pm
I have hyper aphantasia, this was diagnosed as a vivid imagination when I was about 4. I can imagine myself sitting on the moon, on a deck chair and it really feels like im there.
@J.Mesrine-NL
January 24, 2026 at 6:12 pm
Thats creepy
@texas8888
January 24, 2026 at 6:16 pm
All of my kids and I have aphantasia. I had no idea that I was different until a few years ago.
@Cabel-i5q
January 24, 2026 at 6:29 pm
Sounds is how i think. I hear every detail in noise and clarity in words. I can kind of see images but its like faded its never as surreal as some people have experienced
@davidsheatherpw
January 24, 2026 at 6:30 pm
What’s the animation referenced at the end called?
@Quetzalcoatl-Quetzi
January 24, 2026 at 6:32 pm
Yes, and I only found out accidentally talking to a cousin who was just found out he had it. At 65 years old!
@MarspotatoDamon
January 24, 2026 at 6:39 pm
So this is a TED talk. People pay to go to these? I like the information, I just can’t picture having free time to have a night out, and use your time to go see this sort of thing live. Is there like a Cirgue Du Soleil afterward or something?
@nathanaelplatier
January 24, 2026 at 6:40 pm
Another very interesting point of study that I think rarely gets mentioned, especially in regards to aphantasia, is how mind altering substances can affect us differently as well.
During my experience finding out about my Aphantasia, I was curious about Psilocybin and how neuroplasticity can affect our subjective experiences. I had originally wondered if these substances could affect our pineal gland and that different psychedelics could find ways to use that part of our brain we have no access to even if only temporary. Granted, aside from one substance (DMT), these didn’t affect closed eye visuals, but did still cause slight visual warping, textural clarity, and saturation, and the typical body high sensations associated.
In addition to all of this it has always fascinated me the range of people who have aphantasia but still can dream with visuals or people like myself that have no visuals but still processes the information of what is happening inside the dream. I think that the SCIENCE of consciousness is so under developed, for understandable reasons, but even something like Aphantasia and mind altering substances can really lay the groundwork for how we begin mapping out how we research consciousness. Anyway, I digress, but this topic has always fascinated me ever since learning about my aphantasia and delving more into metaphysics. Thank you for the wonderful video, always a joy having more content on this subject!
@sadepennbrook
January 24, 2026 at 6:41 pm
I have hyper-phantasia, I can even see non-visual abstract words like “process”, “idea”, “mechanism”. My brain insists on putting a detailed picture on everything. I also remember events from as early as 8 months (verified). This is why I am an illustrator.
@NoFrenemiesAllowed
January 24, 2026 at 6:55 pm
i’m jealous of people who can think vividly in color. Diverse people, with diverse minds might be the key to humanity.
@jimyklxn
January 24, 2026 at 7:21 pm
Fascnating that I have hyperphantasia, but i just realized that I don’t have a mind’s nose, i cannot imagine a smell, only the concept of it by seeing the object where the scent could come from through my mind’s eye.
@welbyob1
January 24, 2026 at 8:03 pm
I don’t Aphantasia , I don’t have any Disney movies …