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aphantasia

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

·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

·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 Neuroscience Videos Visual Neuroscience

·June 25, 2018·2 min read

Neuroimaging Study to Shed Light on Mind Blindness

Researchers are planning to conduct a new neuroimaging study to investigate why some people are unable to create visual images in their imagination.

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.

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.

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 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.

Featured Neuroscience Visual Neuroscience

·December 15, 2024·6 min read

Visual Silence: Exploring Aphantasia

A new study reveals that aphantasics, people unable to visualize, are more resistant to involuntary visual thoughts, such as imagining a pink elephant. While vivid visual imaginations often lead to intrusive imagery, aphantasics seem to redirect their thoughts to other mental processes, like abstract ideas or auditory daydreaming.

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 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 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.

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aphantasia

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

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

Aphantasia Shatters Classical Theories of Imagistic Thought

Neuroimaging Study to Shed Light on Mind Blindness

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

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

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

Have Trouble Visualizing Images? You May Have Aphantasia

Visual Silence: Exploring Aphantasia

Aphantasia Impacts Autobiographical Memory Recall

Unlocking Aphantasia – The Mysterious Spectrum of Mind’s Visualization

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

Early DBS Protects Cognition in Genetic Parkinson’s

Resource Scarcity Alters Maternal Brain Activity to Hinder Caregiving

Existing Drug Could Halt Brain Inflammation in Alzheimer’s

Ultraprocessed Foods Alter Insulin and Brain Reward Responses

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