Two studies being done on hyperphantasia look at the correlation between hyper-vividness and PTSD. In some cases, people such as soldiers or trauma victims who can’t stop replaying the terrifying images in their mind report images so vivid that they believe their thoughts or flashbacks are real. According to psychologist Chris Brewin, flashbacks are an adaptive mechanism that stores information until it can be processed, after the danger is past. In a study of visual imagery and PTSD, researchers Richard Bryant and Allison Harvey looked at eighty-one motorcycle accident survivors and
...more
