Q: My teacher keeps telling me to “picture this in your mind’s eye.” Well I can’t picture anything in my mind’s eye. She said, ‘pull up a picture of a dog in your brain.’ I tried. I know what a dog is when I see one but couldn’t see it in my brain with my eyes closed. The teacher says there is something wrong with my brain.

A: Interesting question and I’m glad you asked. Aphantasia is a label for a lack of all mental imagery. Some brains can imagine things like the soft feeling of a kitten, the smell of a favorite food, the sound of thunder with lightening, but they cannot close their eyes and see any accompanying “internal mental picture” in their brain. Recent research on ”Aphantasia” reported that approximately 95% of individuals are able to picture things in their mind’s eye—at some level. That means that the brains of about 5% do not. If you can't, there are many other things you can do . . . enjoy those.