Aphantasia

Aphantasia is a phenomenon in which people are unable to visualize imagery. While most people are able to conjure an image of a scene or face in their minds, people with aphantasia cannot.

Imagine that it is a warm summer day and you are sitting on the side of a swimming pool. The sun is shining down and there are children laughing and splashing in the water. What sort of images do you see in your mind as you think about this scene?

What Does a Person With Aphantasia See?

If you have aphantasia, you may be unable to visualize any type of image in your head. Aphantasia is believed to be rare, affecting an estimated 1% to 3% of the population. These individuals have no "mind's eye," or their imagination is essentially blind. This ability to visualize events and images plays an important part in people's lives.

People often visualize scenes, people, experiences, imaginings, objects, and planned events, among other things. When you think about a friend, for example, you might immediately visualize their face inside your mind. People with aphantasia are unable to visualize such a mental image.

If you were to ask a person with aphantasia to imagine something, they could likely describe the object, explain the concept, and rattle off facts that they know about the object. But they would not be able to experience any sort of mental image to accompany this knowledge.

Research on Aphantasia

This lack of mental imagery was described as early the late 1800s, yet it has remained a relatively unstudied phenomenon. Francis Galton first described the occurrence in a paper on mental imagery published in 1880. In addition to noting that people experience various degrees of vividness when describing their mental visual imagery, he also reported that some people experienced no visual imagery at all.

Much of the available information stems from a few small studies and anecdotal accounts from people who have described their symptoms.

It was not until the publication of additional studies that interest has grown in the topic. A 2015 study introduced the first use of the term aphantasia and has led to a renewed interest in the phenomenon. The authors of the groundbreaking study were approached by a patient who had recently lost his ability to visualize information following minor surgery.

Early Reports

In 2005, a retired 65-year-old man visited neurologist Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter Medical School. The man, referred to in the literature as MX, had undergone a minor surgery, after which he realized that he could no longer visualize images in his mind. Zeman's search of the medical literature turned up little to explain why the man could no longer generate visual images within his "mind's eye."

Researchers have long debated exactly how this ability to visualize inside the mind works and the role that it may play in planning and memory. While the patient described experiencing almost no imagery, his performance on tests of perception, visual imagery, and visual memory were all normal.

Another study conducted by researchers from the University of New South Wales investigated the question of whether people with aphantasia were really unable to form mental images or if they simply had poor recall of these images. Using a technique call "binocular rivalry," the researchers told participants to imagine an image. Two different images were then shown to the participants via a 3D headset. One eye saw one image, while the other eye saw a completely different image.

When told to imagine one of these images beforehand, people without aphantasia are more likely to see the image they had previously envisioned. There was no such correlation between the imagined image and the dominant image people saw. These findings suggest that it is not that those with aphantasia have poor recall of their imaginings—they literally have no such visual imaginings to begin with.

Latest Research

A 2020 study looked at differences between people with aphantasia and those with hyperphantasia, which involves experiencing vivid mental imagery. Those with aphantasia reported more difficulty with autobiographical memory and facial recognition and were more likely to work in careers that involve math and science.

Another 2020 study found that people with aphantasia also report decreased imagery in other sensory domains, including less vivid autobiographical memories. They also have less frequent and less visual dreams. 

However, the study also found that these deficits had no impact on spatial ability. The lack of visual imagery also appeared to offer no protection against symptoms of trauma in response to stressful life events.

Possible Explanations for Aphantasia

While research is limited, the available findings offer some clues as to what might explain aphantasia.

• In MX's case, functional MRI scans found that brain activation patterns when looking at pictures of famous faces had no significant differences from normal controls. However, when the patient tried to visualize imagery, there was a significant reduction in activation patterns across posterior networks, while frontal region activity was significantly increased compared to controls.
• The researchers suggest that this indicates the patient relied on a different cognitive strategy during the imagery task.
• The authors further propose that such results indicate that performance on visual memory and visual imagery tasks are not dependent upon the actual experience of visual imagery.

Aphantasia and Memory

When people normally cue a memory, they are often able to imagine events almost as though they are replaying a video of the experience. They often recall specific imagery that stands out about the memory. For people with aphantasia, memories of events are often comprised simply of a listing of facts.

Someone with aphantasia might remember the day they were married, names of the people who attended, and even what the weather was like that day, but they will not be able to form a mental image of the events of the event.

Some of those affected by the condition have also reported difficulty when recognizing faces or navigating spaces.

It has also been suggested that this lack of visual memory might have some possible advantages. Because aphantasia leads to a lack of visual imagery, people could be less likely to be troubled by intrusive recollections or disturbing flashbacks. However, at least one study has found that having aphantasia does not protect people from having trauma symptoms.

Zeman explained to the BBC's Science Focus magazine that this is possible because what the brain does during wakefulness is different than what it does while dreaming. The imagery of dreams originates from bottom-up processes controlled by the brainstem. Visualization, on the other hand, requires top-down processing that originates in the brain's cortex.

Living With Aphantasia

Not being able to visualize people and places can be distressing for people with aphantasia. For example, not being able to picture the face of a loved one who has passed away can be upsetting.

The available studies suggest that having aphantasia does not necessarily hurt a person's success in life. People from all walks of life experience this phenomenon, including successful doctorate students, engineers, and other professionals.

It is important to note that this phenomenon is a normal variation of human experience, not a condition that requires treatment. This doesn’t mean that it might not have an effect on different aspects of your life, however. Mental imagery also plays a role in learning, so not being able to visualize scenes in your mind may make certain aspects of learning more difficult.

A number of questions remain about this phenomenon, including just how prevalent it may be and whether it might have a genetic component.

Researchers suggest that future investigations of the condition not only focus on its causes and effects, but also on possible ways of improving the ability to mentally visualize. Further research and a better understanding of the condition are needed to make such recommendations, however.

Research on aphantasia is still very much in its infancy, so there is still a great deal to learn. Many people with aphantasia do not even realize that their experience is any different than that of other people. It is simply part of their existence and has little impact on how they live their lives. Neurologist Adam Zeman, the researcher who coined the term aphantasia, described it as simply "a fascinating variation in human experience rather than a medical disorder" in a radio interview with the BBC.