mental images

People who are unable to create mental images, or only very weak ones, are referred to as aphantasics.

"Our brain has this remarkable ability to make associations between specific thoughts or mental images and physical sensations," she says.

One side argues that mental images are like actual pictures that our brain uses directly to reason about things.

These are exactly the kind of highly specific, relatively insignificant mental images from childhood that might cling to an anxious, guilt-ridden adult.

Saffron similarly struggles to create mental images in her mind, a condition called aphantasia.