Adam Zeman - Neurologist / Shape Of Things Unseen

Indian Genes

What does it mean to see with the mind’s eye — or not see at all?

Do YOU see pictures in your mind? What if you couldn’t?

In this mind-blowing episode, we sit down with Professor Adam Zeman, the world-renowned neurologist who discovered and coined the term “aphantasia” — a condition where people cannot form mental images.

Zeman shares the fascinating story behind the discovery of aphantasia, from the case of a patient known as “MX” to his global research into the limits and powers of human imagination. We dive deep into:

What it really means to have aphantasia or hyperphantasia

How imagination shapes our memories, creativity, emotions, and dreams

Insights from his groundbreaking new book: The Shape of Things Unseen

Why some people can succeed without mental imagery — and even thrive!

What artists, writers, and thinkers can learn from the spectrum of imagery

Zeman’s work is a bridge between neuroscience, psychology, art, and philosophy, and in this conversation, you'll discover just how mysterious — and powerful — the human mind truly is.

If you've ever asked, "Why can't I picture things in my head?" — this is the episode for you.

Tune in for a journey into the unseen — and maybe discover something new about your own mind.

In this fascinating episode, we sit down with Professor Adam Zeman, the neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist who coined the term “aphantasia” — the inability to create mental imagery. Zeman takes us deep into the uncharted territories of imagination, memory, and consciousness, drawing from decades of clinical research, personal stories, and the groundbreaking insights from his latest book, The Shape of Things Unseen: A New Science of Imagination.

We explore:

· The discovery of aphantasia through the now-famous case of “MX”

· How people with aphantasia live, think, and remember without mental images

· The surprising strengths and adaptations of minds at the far ends of the imagery spectrum

· How aphantasia challenges long-held assumptions about creativity, memory, and the self

· The intersection of art, neuroscience, and subjective experience through Zeman’s “The Eye’s Mind” project

Adam Zbynek James Zeman (born September 1957is a neurologist, who coined the term "aphantasia" for an inability to create mental images His latest book The Shape of Things Unseen: A New Science of Imagination is a briliant and must read of you want to know abojut the mysteries of the brain and the immaganitive and creative process Zeman first became aware that some people cannot form mental images when a man (known as "MX") reported that, after minor heart surgery, he had no mental image of people or places when he thought of them. The case was reported in 2010.After several people (responding to an article on the MX case by Carl Zimmer) reported that they had never been able to visualise, Zeman and his team (including Sergio Della Sala) conducted a survey of 21 people with a self-reported lifelong lack of visual imagery, using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire developed by David Marks. They reported in 2015, finding that despite their inability to form mental images voluntarily, most of the respondents experienced involuntary imagery as "flashes" while awake or in dreams; that they have some difficulty recalling details of their own lives; that many have compensating verbal, mathematical and logical strengths; and that they successfully perform tasks that would normally involve visualisation, such as recalling visual details, by other strategies. One of the project's three strands studies individuals with visual imagery at the extremes of the vividness spectrum – both aphantasia and hyperphantasia (unusually vivid mental imagery). In 2019, the project organised the exhibition Extreme Imagination: Inside the Mind’s Eye, hosted at Tramway in Glasgow and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, which showcased works of art created by aphantasics and hyperphantasics. He appeared on the BBC Radio 4 science programme The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry in 2023, to discuss aphantasia He was educated at Westminster School, then at Magdalen College and Merton College, Oxford, where he took a first degree in philosophy and psychology then trained in medicine

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