/sci/ - Science & Math

>>11917237
Again he too focuses on mental imagery, so even conceptual non-linguistic thoughts must be sensory based in his view. But just ask any aphantasic unsymbolized thinker to think of a pink elephant and they will tell you they are aware they are thinking of that concept despite not verbally thinking "pink elephant" nor seeing the mental image of one they just "know" they are thinking about it but could not describe it to you in any sense beyond that.

Galton himself identified such aphantasics in his study >>11905185

>VIVIDNESS OF MENTAL IMAGERY.
>Cases where the faculty is at the lowest.
>97. No individual objects, only a general idea of a very uncertain kind.
>100. My powers are zero. To my consciousness there is almost no association of memory with objective visual impressions. I recollect the breakfast table, but do not see it.

But what mental representation for non-linguistic conceptual thoughts can there be if not in the form of a visual mental image?

One possibility could be grid/place cells-
https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-brain-maps-out-ideas-and-memories-like-spaces-20190114/
http://nautil.us/blog/new-evidence-for-the-geometry-of-thought

I've often noticed some sort of underlying "spatial" sense component to unsymbolized thinking, but I never really put much thought into it, that is until I learned about place and grid cells recently and now things are starting to connect. The hypothesis goes that far from just representing physical space, grid cells may also represent conceptual space, this concept though unverified strikes me intuitively as true as it often feels like one is "navigating" through concepts in a literal sense! And much like you just "know" where to go because your brain has built up an internal representational map of your physical (or virtual) environment via place and grid cells, it feels like you just "know" what you are thinking of because concepts, ideas and general knowledge might be mapped via grid cells as well.