Local high school student wins $25,000 for project on fairly unresearched condition

“I was in physics class I believe when I was first learning about it. So we found a post on social media and it was talking about some people can’t see images in their mind and that kind of hit me because ‘some people can see images in their mind?’ and then it lead to a debate in my class and my teacher was like ‘what do you mean you can’t see images in your mind?’ and then I was like ‘I see nothing, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.'” said Burke.

It was there that led Burke wanting to learn more about her condition. She then decided to turn that into a research project with the goal to spread more awareness about aphantasia.

In her research, she found that the effects of aphantasia vary for people across a spectrum.

“For me I remember my dreams in words and memories I remember them in words, if I was to think of something that happened, I would think about describing it instead of seeing it in my mind. For my dreams I remember them in sentences and words where other people remember the images they saw.” said Burke.

In her research, Burke asked 52 people to close their eyes and imagine a red star. They then were asked to choose one of six images to best describe what that star looked like. 44% of people chose number six, but 23% chose number one. The other 33% chose answers two to five.

She says there is evidence between logical and creative thinkers and where they are placed on the spectrum but it wasn’t conclusive.

Overall, Burke says she’s proud of herself for this project and that it gave her more self-confidence.

“It was definitely a relief. It showed me my own potential and got rid of that self doubt that I had. Being recognized for my work is just so amazing.” said Burke.

Along with the award, she has been given $25,000 that she can use for her post-secondary education. She plans on studying at the University of Alberta and eventually going to medical school to become an oncologist.

However, she’s still considering studying neurology.

“After this project, I definitely realized I am a little interested in neurology, but with my undergrad in biochemistry it’s quite a broad spectrum so I can go anywhere with that degree pretty much.” said Burke.

by Oli Herrera

Local high school student wins $25,000 for project on fairly unresearched condition

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