TED 2026

Can You Picture Things in Your Mind? I Can’t

Picture this: a rocket ship crash-lands on a planet, and an alien approaches the spacecraft. What do you see in your mind when you visualize this scene? For Alex Rosenthal (and many others), the answer is: absolutely nothing. Exploring the fascinating science of aphantasia, or the inability to generate mental images, he shows why our minds are much more different than we think. (Recorded at TEDNext 2025 on November 11, 2025) Learn more about Pandora's Legacy from TED Games - an unforgettable experience that combines elements of jigsaw puzzles, escape rooms, puzzle hunts and legacy board games into immersive, cooperative gameplay: https://www.allplay.com/board-games/pandoras-legacy/ Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters Follow TED! X: https://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks The TED Talks channel features talks, performances and original series from the world's leading thinkers and doers. Subscribe to our channel for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design - plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit https://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Watch more: https://go.ted.com/alexrosenthal26 https://youtu.be/ojttMNOW6zM TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (or the CC BY - NC - ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy: https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online cours