The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia

For most people the use of visual imagery is pervasive in daily life, but for a small group of people the experience of visual imagery is entirely unknown. Research based on subjective phenomenology indicates that otherwise healthy people can completely lack the experience of visual imagery, a condi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cortex 2018-08, Vol.105, p.53-60
Main Authors: Keogh, Rebecca, Pearson, Joel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aphantasia
Cognition
Cognition - physiology
Female
Humans
Imagery, Psychotherapy
Imagination
Individual differences
Individuality
Male
Mental imagery
Middle Aged
Photic Stimulation - methods
Surveys and Questionnaires
Visual imagery
Visual Perception - physiology
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Summary:For most people the use of visual imagery is pervasive in daily life, but for a small group of people the experience of visual imagery is entirely unknown. Research based on subjective phenomenology indicates that otherwise healthy people can completely lack the experience of visual imagery, a condition now referred to as aphantasia. As congenital aphantasia has thus far been based on subjective reports, it remains unclear whether individuals are really unable to imagine visually, or if they have very poor metacognition – they have images in their mind, but are blind to them. Here we measured sensory imagery in subjectively self-diagnosed aphantasics, using the binocular rivalry paradigm, as well as measuring their self-rated object and spatial imagery with multiple questionnaires (VVIQ, SUIS and OSIQ). Unlike, the general population, experimentally naive aphantasics showed almost no imagery-based rivalry priming. Aphantasic participants' self-rated visual object imagery was significantly below average, however their spatial imagery scores were above average. These data suggest that aphantasia is a condition involving a lack of sensory and phenomenal imagery, and not a lack of metacognition. The possible underlying neurological cause of aphantasia is discussed as well as future research directions.
ISSN:0010-9452
1973-8102
DOI:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012