Author of the None of the Above series. Software engineer for 24 years before retiring to write full-time.
P.G. Sundling
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The original discussion was seven years before the term aphantasia was introduced in 2015. There is a spectrum from aphantasia, where someone can’t see images in their mind, to hyperphantasia, where imaginations are as vivid as seeing.
So this thread quickly shed light on some of this variation, before modern framing of these differences. This was a missed opportunity to spread this knowledge earlier. I didn’t find out that I’m basically aphantasiac until 2023 from a Facebook meme.
Even though I don’t have a visual imagination that I can control, I know my body can do it. One of the 15 side effects and consequences of being hurt by the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin was a couple of weeks of seeing images when I closed my eyes. For someone who is not used to that, it was scary. The images seemed to be memories.
So, there may be some layers to this with how the brain functions and variations of subjective experience, on top of that.
I would not call the microbiome weak sauce. There has been an overestimation of the importance of genetics in health, and an underestimation of lifestyle factors, such as diet, sleep, stress, and exercise. The more we learn, the more we find the importance of the microbiome coming into play. I suspect something similar with intelligence.
The gut has been called the second brain and has a two-way communication with the brain. Fecal transplant experiments have proved that a change in gut bacteria can alter anxiety and depression. Gut microbomes manufacture neurochemicals like serotonin and dopamine.
We may well find that our intelligence is related to our Holobiont nature. There could be emergent properties to intelligence that we don’t understand, and even on the level of genetics, can’t microbes change gene expression? If we ever develop something of a hive mind, my gut tells me it’ll be microbiome-based. We say I have a gut feeling when we think about intuition. I think there’s something to that characterization.
There is also a tendency to think of ourselves separately from animals, when we are animals too. If we analyzed ourselves like animals, we would investigate our habitat more closely and think in terms of evolutionary biology.
I have personally been harmed by antibiotics (Cipro) and suffered an astonishing array of symptoms. I’ve seen firsthand the damage that can be done when the microbiome is damaged. It took me 3 years before I could run and dance again without hurting myself.
I usually don’t see images when I close my eyes (aphantasia), and for a couple of weeks or so after I was hurt by the antibiotics, I saw images when I closed my eyes. It was like misfired memories. I also had anxiety attacks and vivid nightmares that first month. I’ve only had vivid nightmares on that level twice in my life before the antibiotic hurt me. That gives me direct experience of the effects of microbiome changes affecting my mental states.
Brain fog is another important consideration when it comes to intelligence. There is likely a microbiome connection to that as well.