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aphantasia

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·September 8, 2023·6 min read

Unlocking Aphantasia – The Mysterious Spectrum of Mind’s Visualization

Visualization abilities range from hyperphantasia, where individuals can create vivid mental images, to aphantasia, where people experience a complete absence of visual imagery. A study assessed the link between perception and mental imagery in individuals across this spectrum.

Featured Neuroscience

·March 3, 2023·5 min read

Imagination Is a Spectrum, and 1% Of People Can’t Mentally Visualize Things at All

1% of the population experience aphantasia, or mind-blindness, which is an inability to visualize concepts or thoughts in their imagination. Researchers investigate this phenomenon and offer explanations as to how this may occur.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Visual Neuroscience

·April 20, 2022·6 min read

Windows to the Soul: Pupils Reveal ‘Aphantasia’ – The Absence of Visual Imagination

People who experience visual imagination have pupillary responses that optimize the amount of light hitting the retina and change in response to imagined items. This pupillary response does not occur in those with aphantasia.

This is a drawing of a head with a spider crawling on it

Featured Neuroscience Psychology Visual Neuroscience

·October 29, 2021·5 min read

Not Spooked by Halloween Ghost Stories? You May Have Aphantasia

Do you experience difficulties conjuring up visual images in your mind while listening to spooky stories? You may have aphantasia, researchers report.

This shows a girl standing on a dock at night looking at an oversized moon

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·June 26, 2021·4 min read

Pseudo-Hallucinations: Why Some People See More Vivid Mental Images Than Others – Test Yourself Here

Study reveals people who experience intense visual imagery during a Ganzflicker test have naturally lower frequency rhythms in the visual cortex, making them more susceptible to pseudo-hallucinations.

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 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.

This shows models of halloween skeletons lit up with neon lights

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 10, 2021·6 min read

I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts: People With Mind-Blindness Not So Easily Spooked

Horror writers may have a hard time attracting those with aphantasia to read their spooky stories. A new study reveals those with aphantasia, a disorder marked by an inability to visualize mental imagery, have a hard time getting spooked by creepy stories. Findings suggest mental imagery may have a closer link to emotional processing and expression than previously believed.

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 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.

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.