[amagumori]

i think there's some way in which the brain "crystallizes" as one grows up, and the modes of cognition which are the most used in daily life are deepened at the expense of others. i'd compare it to trails being worn into the dirt by foot traffic; the most trafficked paths will remain for years and years, while the unused paths slowly disappear, until eventually they show no sign of their existence at all.

the example i'd give is to think of a kid playing with hot wheels. the kid is not playing with the physical toy; the toy is an avatar from which the kid is building a vivid imaginative playground. the kid is playing within the world of their mind's eye. adults, for the most part, can't play with hot wheels and dive into that same mental landscape of imagination and association. an adult just sees a small die-cast car. rather than being an inherent part of growing up, i think this power of the "mind's eye" is simply a mode of cognition our society doesn't reinforce and select for; so, for most, it's lost as they grow.

however, there's really a lot of utility in the power of imagination, and so we also see people who either never lost the ability through repeated reinforcement, or went to great lengths to re-activate it - artists like Katsuya Terada or Kim Jung Gi. notable with these artists is the way they're able to draw photorealistic pieces of eye-watering detail, without construction or perspective layout; they simply start from any point and draw, somehow putting every line in its exact place. when asked about how they possess what is essentially an artistic superpower, they've both related that they are able to visualize the scene in a vivid, consistent, and complete way in their mind's eye, and they simply draw from the mental image. both have said that they drew for hours a day in this "rakugaki" (doodle) style as kids, and never stopped the habit. in doing so they were able to retain and reinforce the power of visualization, a mode of cognition that emerges naturally, but is not retained if not practiced.

[spurgu]

I know what you mean! My brother is very talented at drawing and he's been doing it his whole life. It's fascinating to see him start drawing something where I don't see what it's supposed to be until he's finished maybe 30% of it. Just seemingly random lines at first. It's fascinating to me as I can hardly picture even simple shapes in my mind. But I can picture music, because I've been doing that for most of my life, so I can somehow relate to what it's like.

The sad thing about this, and things like music, is that despite all the positive encouragement that "it's never too late to learn to play", it actually is (hard to impossible) if your goal is to achieve mastery resembling that of those who forged their paths at a young age.

And from this perspective it becomes so important to encourage and support children in creative endeavours and not just have them sit on a school bench memorizing things.