A to Z

aphantasia

This shows a woman with swirling colors on her head

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·June 13, 2021·4 min read

Aphantasia Explained: Some People Can’t Form Mental Pictures

Aphantasia is marked by the inability to generate visual images in the mind's eye. Researchers explore the neurobiological basis for the disorder.

Featured Neuroscience

·February 27, 2024·5 min read

Aphantasia Impacts Autobiographical Memory Recall

Individuals with aphantasia, a condition where people cannot visualize images in their mind, struggle more with recalling personal memories due to differences in their hippocampus and occipital lobe. This groundbreaking study, involving participants with and without aphantasia, utilized questionnaires, interviews, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the connection between visual imagination and memory recall.

Featured Neuroscience

·July 2, 2026·11 min read

Aphantasia Shatters Classical Theories of Imagistic Thought

A new study demonstrates that aphantasia, the complete absence of mental imagery, fundamentally disproves David Hume’s classical theory of cognition, proving that abstract thought operates independently of sensory visualization.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 9, 2025·6 min read

Aphantasia: Why Some Minds Are Blind to Images

Scientists have uncovered how the brains of people with aphantasia, those who cannot visualize mental images, process visual information differently. Although key visual and memory-related brain regions still activate during mental imagery tasks, they show weaker connectivity compared to individuals with typical visualization.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·June 22, 2020·5 min read

Being ‘mind-blind’ may make remembering, dreaming and imagining harder

Aphantasia, a disorder in which people are lack the ability to mentally visualize imagery, is also associated with a widespread pattern of changes to other important cognitive processes. Many with aphantasia report a reduced ability to recall past events, imagine the future, and dream.

Image shows a person with a blank canvas.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 11, 2018·5 min read

Blind in the Mind: Why Some People Can’t See Pictures in their Imagination

Researchers report on why some people experience aphantasia, the inability to imagine in images.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·June 9, 2021·3 min read

Brain Connections Mean Some People Lack Visual Imagery

People with hyperphantasia, the ability to visualize vividly, have stronger connections between their visual brain network and decision-making networks. By contrast, those with aphantasia, an inability to visualize, have weaker connections between the brain regions.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·March 3, 2026·9 min read

Brain’s “On-Switch” for Imagination Found

Imagination's "Off" switch. Scientists identify a specific brain node that, when damaged or disconnected, causes the "mind's eye" to go dark.

This shows a bedroom scene and drawings from those who can and can't visualize

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·December 27, 2020·6 min read

Can’t Draw a Mental Picture? Aphantasia Causes Blind Spots in the Mind’s Eye

While people with aphantasia lack visual imagery ability, they have intact spatial memory. Findings suggest mental imagery recall and spatial memory may be stored differently in the brain.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·March 27, 2024·6 min read

Exploring Aphantasia: The Mind Without a Mental Picture

Researchers reviewed 50 studies to deepen our understanding aphantasia, a phenomenon where individuals can't visualize mentally. The research reveals aphantasia's diverse impact, from reduced autobiographical memory and face recognition to broader implications in music imagination and occupation choices, suggesting a spectrum rather than a binary condition.

This shows the brain with the lobes labelled.

Featured Neuroscience

·August 27, 2015·5 min read

Have Trouble Visualizing Images? You May Have Aphantasia

Do you have a problem visualizing images? According to researchers, you could have a newly defined condition called aphantasia.

This shows a woman surrounded by various objects like clocks and smoke

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·May 6, 2020·6 min read

How strong is your mental imagery? It might depend on how ‘excitable’ your neurons are

The strength of a person's mental imagery is associated with excitability in the prefrontal cortex and visual cortex. Highly excitable neurons in the visual cortex may reduce a person's ability to imagine mental images. The findings shed light on how aphantasia, a condition where a person can not imaging mental images, may occur.

1 2

aphantasia

Aphantasia Explained: Some People Can’t Form Mental Pictures

Aphantasia Impacts Autobiographical Memory Recall

Aphantasia Shatters Classical Theories of Imagistic Thought

Aphantasia: Why Some Minds Are Blind to Images

Being ‘mind-blind’ may make remembering, dreaming and imagining harder

Blind in the Mind: Why Some People Can’t See Pictures in their Imagination

Brain Connections Mean Some People Lack Visual Imagery

Brain’s “On-Switch” for Imagination Found

Can’t Draw a Mental Picture? Aphantasia Causes Blind Spots in the Mind’s Eye

Exploring Aphantasia: The Mind Without a Mental Picture

Have Trouble Visualizing Images? You May Have Aphantasia

How strong is your mental imagery? It might depend on how ‘excitable’ your neurons are

Cannabis Destroys Sleep Quality

Genetic Risk for Anorexia May Begin Outside the Brain

Higher BMI Linked to Longer Survival After a Dementia Diagnosis

Can We Predict Hearing Loss Long Before Symptoms Ever Start?

Subscribe