We have the strange ability to "replay" both sounds and images in our head, hearing and seeing them in a different way to what is coming through our ears and eyes. At least, this is how it seems to me. It's like I have a second smaller screen and sound system in my head. I can play things back seemingly at will.

I'm interested in what this experience is like for other people. Would you describe it in the same way?

What is the quality of your playback like? I find my images are very poor, giving only a very blurry outline of things. I can't properly see detail in faces. However, my sound playback is amazing quality, pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing. It seems to come through at more or less a set volume, which I can't alter much.

Thanks for indulging me

I have the same experience. I'm an extensive day dreamer when there's nothing else to do, but the detail in images is I think not very large. When I can't go to sleep or I'm doing boring exercises, I often invent music and let it play by some orchestra in my head. I can "let" it sound like most instruments or groups of instruments I have heard before, but I sometimes wonder how detailed this rendition really is, for example when I imagine several voices at once - usually one takes precedence and the rest is more of a diffuse accompaniment. It would be great (but also scary) if we could pick this stuff up and watch it/listen to it to see what's really going on. It also raises the interesting philosophical question in which sense these images and sounds are really present in the brain, and whether they are irreducibly mixed into our neural network and can never be interpreted by any agent outside the brain itself.

I zone off regularly and live more in my head than in the real world tbh and the visuals are clearer than sounds for me

I'm kind of an airhead, my attention spa- oh look, a kitty!!

Some time ago, I saw that someone had made a contraption that captures images from the retina... it seems that whatever image you imagine sends the corresponding signal to the retina and that can be imaged from the outside.

(April 24, 2015 at 11:14 am)pocaracas Wrote: Some time ago, I saw that someone had made a contraption that captures images from the retina... it seems that whatever image you imagine sends the corresponding signal to the retina and that can be imaged from the outside.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

When I try to recreate an image, it's pretty straight forward. The accuracy of the image seems to depend on what it is I'm thinking about: Is it a familiar thing, like a family member's face? Was there a notable source of light?

But with sound it's more of a feeling. The accuracy seems to depend on the complexity of the sound and familiarity. For instance; writing something like a solo or a melody is pretty straight forward- think of it, then play it on whatever instrument, or hum it out. Done. There's no need for a big sound vocabulary. Just a little imagination. But writing a chord progression is a little more difficult and fun. I usually need to be sitting with the guitar to do it. I'll often get to a point in a progression where I know exactly the sound and feeling of the next chord, but I don't know the name or how to get my hands to do it, yet. I also know that it's probably a chord I already know. I'm overcome with the feeling you get when a word is at the tip of your tongue; you know you know the word, you just have to find it. Sometimes I'll find a chord that half-way satisfies what's in my head, and I'm on the right track, but not quite there. But it's all based on a feeling. Like a feeling of release or tension, I guess would be the simplest way to explain the feeling.

(April 24, 2015 at 11:21 am)Alex K Wrote:

(April 24, 2015 at 11:14 am)pocaracas Wrote: Some time ago, I saw that someone had made a contraption that captures images from the retina... it seems that whatever image you imagine sends the corresponding signal to the retina and that can be imaged from the outside.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

Well.. could have been an April fool's fake news story... or just a standard Onion one... o not... too long ago for me to remember properly.

Not sure if this is along the same lines, but when I sing, I hear myself differently than what other people do. I think I'm singing off key when I see video of myself singing. This really bothers me a lot.

(April 24, 2015 at 11:22 am)Exian Wrote: I'm overcome with the feeling you get when a word is at the tip of your tongue; you know you know the word, you just have to find it. Sometimes I'll find a chord that half-way satisfies what's in my head, and I'm on the right track, but not quite there. But it's all based on a feeling. Like a feeling of release or tension, I guess would be the simplest way to explain the feeling.

I know what you mean. And when you have one in your head and you have to try on the instrument to find it, there's the danger that it will slip away from the distraction.

(April 24, 2015 at 11:31 am)Judi Lynn Wrote: Not sure if this is along the same lines, but when I sing, I hear myself differently than what other people do. I think I'm singing off key when I see video of myself singing. This really bothers me a lot.

That's because, when you hear yourself the sound takes an internal path, throat -> nose -> Eustachian tube -> tympanic membrane.
And when you hear external sound, it comes through the external auditory canal to the tympanic membrane.


Curiosity: the tympanic membrane completely seals the outer ear from the eustachian tube. This membrane is very sensitive to air pressure, which is what sound is made of - air pressure waves.
In principle, the air pressure on both sides is the same, but when it's not (say, when you're going uphill or lifting off on an airplane) the membrane is pulled to one side, which can hurt.