Jump to content

Aphantasia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Lack of imagination)

Not to be confused with aphasia, the inability to formulate language.
A representation of how people with differing visualization abilities might picture an apple in their mind. The first image is bright and photographic, levels 2 through 4 show increasingly simpler and more faded images, and the last—representing complete aphantasia—shows no image at all.

Aphantasia (/ˌeɪfænˈteɪʒə/ AY-fan-TAY-zhə, /ˌæfænˈteɪʒə/ AF-an-TAY-zhə) is the inability to visualize.[1]

The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880,[2] but has remained relatively unstudied. Interest in the phenomenon renewed after the publication of a study in 2015 conducted by a team led by Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter.[3] Zeman's team coined the term aphantasia,[4] derived from the ancient Greek word phantasia (φαντασία), which means "appearance/image", and the prefix a- (ἀ-), which means "without".[5] People with aphantasia are called aphantasics,[6] or less commonly aphants[7] or aphantasiacs.[8]

Aphantasia can be considered the opposite of hyperphantasia, the condition of having extremely vivid mental imagery.[9][10]

History

[edit]

The phenomenon was first described by Francis Galton in 1880 in a statistical study about mental imagery.[2] Galton wrote:

To my astonishment, I found that the great majority of the men of science to whom I first applied, protested that mental imagery was unknown to them, and they looked on me as fanciful and fantastic in supposing that the words "mental imagery" really expressed what I believed everybody supposed them to mean. They had no more notion of its true nature than a colour-blind man who has not discerned his defect has of the nature of colour.[2]

In 1897, Théodule-Armand Ribot reported a kind of "typographic visual type" imagination, consisting in mentally seeing ideas in the form of corresponding printed words.[11] As paraphrased by Jacques Hadamard,

The first discovery of this by Ribot was the case of a man whom he mentions as a well-known physiologist. For that man, even the words "dog, animal" (while he was living among dogs and experimenting on them daily) were not accompanied by any image, but were seen by him as being printed. Similarly, when he heard the name of an intimate friend, he saw it printed and had to make an effort to see the image of this friend... Moreover, according to Ribot, men belonging to the typographic-visual type cannot conceive how other people's thought can proceed differently.[12]

The phenomenon remained largely unstudied until 2005, when Professor Adam Zeman of the University of Exeter was approached by a man who seemed to have lost the ability to visualize after undergoing minor surgery.[13] Following the publication of this patient's case in 2010,[14] a number of people approached Zeman reporting a lifelong inability to visualize. In 2015, Zeman's team published a paper on what they termed "congenital aphantasia",[3] sparking renewed interest in the phenomenon.[4]

The idea of aphantasia was popularised on social media in 2020, through posts which asked the reader to imagine a red apple and rate their "mind's eye" depiction of it on a scale from 1 (photographic visualisation) through to 5 (no visualisation at all). Many were shocked to learn that their own ability or inability to visualise objects was not universal.[15]

Research

[edit]

Zeman's 2015 paper used the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), developed by David Marks in 1973, to evaluate the quality of the mental image of 21 self-diagnosed and self-selected participants. He found that most aphantasics lack voluntary visualizations only; the majority of test subjects did report involuntary visualizations such as dreams.[3]

In 2017, a paper measured the sensory capacity of mental imagery using binocular-rivalry (BR) and imagery-based priming and found that when asked to imagine a stimulus, the self-reported aphantasics experienced almost no perceptual priming, compared to those who reported higher imagery scores where perceptual priming had an effect.[16] In 2020, Keogh and Pearson published another paper illustrating measurable differences correlated with visual imagery, this time by indirectly measuring cortical excitability in the primary visual cortex (V1).[17]

In 2018, a study analyzing the visual working memory of a person with aphantasia found that mental imagery has a "functional role in areas of visual cognition, one of which is high-precision working memory" and that the person with aphantasia performed significantly worse than controls on visual working memory trials requiring the highest degree of precision, and lacked metacognitive insight into their performance.[18]

A 2020 study concluded that those who experience aphantasia also experience reduced imagery in other senses, and have less vivid autobiographical memories.[19] In addition to deficits in autobiographical memories compared to people without aphantasia, people with aphantasia had significant differences in all aspects of memory when compared to the performance of people without aphantasia.[20] A 2021 study concluded that while those with aphantasia reported fewer objects in drawing recall, they showed high spatial memory concerning controls in drawings, with these differences only appearing during the recall stage of the study.[21]

In 2021, a study by Keogh, Wicken, and Pearson focusing on the role of visual imagery in visual working memory tasks specifically considered the strategies people with aphantasia use in these tasks. It found no significant differences in visual working memory task performances for those with aphantasia when compared to controls. However, significant differences were found in the reported strategies used by aphantasic individuals across the memory tasks.[22]

In 2021, a study that measured the perspiration (via skin conductance levels) of participants in response to reading a frightening story and then viewing fear-inducing images found that participants with aphantasia, but not the general population, experienced a flat-line physiological response during the reading experiment, but found no difference in physiological responses between the groups when participants viewed fear-inducing images. The study concluded the evidence supported the emotional amplification theory of visual imagery.[23]

In 2021, a study found that people with aphantasia have slower reaction times than people without aphantasia in a visual search task in which they were presented with a target and a distractor. But both groups saw a similar reduction in reaction time when primed with the color of the target compared to if primed with the color of the distractor or a third color, suggesting that people with and without aphantasia were primed in the same way. The researchers hypothesized that this may be because the color of the prime is not relevant to the search task. To explore this, a follow-up experiment by the same researchers found people without aphantasia saw a greater reduction in reaction time when selecting the target from two images compared to from two words. At the same time, both people with and without aphantasia were faster in the image task than the word task.[24] A 2023 study explored more natural scenarios and found that aphantasics are slower at solving hidden object pictures.[25]

In 2021, a study relating aphantasia, synesthesia, and autism was published that found that people with aphantasia reported more autistic traits than people without aphantasia, with weaknesses in imagination and social skills.[26][27]

In addition to congenital aphantasia, there have been cases reported of acquired aphantasia, due either to brain injury or psychological causes.[28][29] In 2021, a study reported on acquired aphantasia following a case of COVID-19.[30][31]

A 2021 study aimed to provide insights into the correlation between auditory and visual imagery. The research, conducted on a sample of 128 participants, included 34 individuals who self-identified as having aphantasia. The study found a strong association between auditory imagery (measured using the Bucknell Auditory Imagery Scale-Vividness, BAIS-V) and visual imagery (measured using the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire-Modified, VVIQ-M). They found most people who self-reported having aphantasia also reported weak or entirely absent auditory imagery. Moreover, participants lacking auditory imagery tended to be aphantasic. The authors proposed a new term, "anauralia", to describe the absence of auditory imagery, particularly the lack of an "inner voice".[32] A subsequent study, corroborated this finding, showing that the majority of a sample of people recruited on the basis of visual aphantasia also reported having reduced auditory imagery. However, this self-reported reduction in auditory imagery was not evident in performance on tasks thought to require auditory imagery, including a musical pitch imagery and voice recognition task.[33]

A 2022 study estimated the prevalence of aphantasia among the general population by screening undergraduate students and people from an online crowdsourcing marketplace through the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire. They found that 0.8% of the population was unable to form visual mental images, and 3.9% of the population was either unable to form mental images or had dim or vague mental imagery.[34] Sitek and Konieczna have shown that its progressive form may be a harbinger of dementia.[35] A group of authors interviewed people with aphantasia about their lives and found that they generated fewer episodic details than controls for both past and future events, indicating that visual imagery is an important cognitive tool for dynamic retrieval and recombination of episodic details.[36]

There have been various approaches to find a general theory of aphantasia or incorporate it into current philosophical, psychological and linguistic research. Blomkvist[37] has suggested that aphantasia is best explained as a malfunction of processes in the episodic system and sees it as an episodic system condition. Nanay[38] has argued that at least some instances of this condition can be explained in terms of unconscious mental imagery.[clarification needed] Alternative explanations for aphantasia have also been proposed in the scientific literature. Lorenzatti[39] provides a summary of these views. Aphantasia also has been studied from philosophical perspectives. Šekrst[40] proposed that a gradual range of perceptions and mental images, from aphantasia to hyperphantasia, influences philosophical analysis of mental imagery from a fuzzy standpoint, along with influence on linguistics and semiotics. Whiteley[41] argues that a modified theory of dreaming has to incorporate aphantasia, by involving the claim that dreams are a non-voluntary form of imagination. Additionally, research by Boran[42] into romantic desire has shown a potential link between vividness of mental imagery and romantic feelings, suggesting that mental imagery may also play a role in emotional memory and relationships.

In 2024, a research team lead by Jonathan Rhodes from the University of Plymouth assessed the imagery abilities of over 300 athletes finding a small sample of 27 who had aphantasia or low imagery abilities. The researchers developed a training program over six weeks to improve imagery ability, finding that it can be significantly improved for the majority of participants.[43] In addition, the research of Keogh and Pearson's[44] follow-up with over 50 participants further confirmed the absence of sensory imagery in aphantasia, adding evidence to the field of study. Zeman[45] also proposes that alterations in connectivity between the frontoparietal and visual networks may provide the neural substrate for extreme variations in visual imagery.

Notable people with aphantasia

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Larner AJ (2016). A dictionary of neurological signs. New York: Springer. pp. 29–30. ISBN 978-3-319-29821-4.
  2. ^ a b c Galton F (19 July 1880). "Statistics of Mental Imagery". Mind. os–V (19): 301–318. doi:10.1093/mind/os-V.19.301. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Zeman A, Dewar M, Della Sala S (December 2015). "Lives without imagery - Congenital aphantasia" (PDF). Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 73: 378–380. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019. hdl:10871/17613. PMID 26115582. S2CID 19224930.
  4. ^ a b Gallagher J (26 August 2015). "Aphantasia: A life without mental images". BBC News Online. Archived from the original on 26 August 2015. Retrieved 26 August 2015.
  5. ^ Clemens A (1 August 2018). "When the Mind's Eye is Blind". Scientific American.
  6. ^ "aphantasics". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  7. ^ "aphants". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  8. ^ "aphantasiacs". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2023-12-27.
  9. ^ "An update on 'extreme imagination' – aphantasia / hyperphantasia". The Eye's Mind. University of Exeter Medical School. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  10. ^ Keogh R, Pearson J, Zeman A (January 2021). "Aphantasia: The science of visual imagery extremes". Neurology of Vision and Visual Disorders. Handbook of Clinical Neurology. Vol. 178. pp. 277–296. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821377-3.00012-x. ISBN 978-0-12-821377-3. PMID 33832681. S2CID 233193117.
  11. ^ Ribot T (1897). L'évolution des idées générales (in French). Serge,. Nicolas, Impr. Corlet numérique). Paris: L'Harmattan. p. 143. ISBN 2-296-02334-7. OCLC 494261389.
  12. ^ Hadamard J (1996). The Mathematician's Mind. Princeton University Press. p. 91. doi:10.2307/j.ctvzsmf1c. ISBN 978-0-691-21290-6. S2CID 243685617.
  13. ^ Griffin A (25 April 2016). "You might not be able to imagine things, and not know it". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  14. ^ Zeman AZ, Della Sala S, Torrens LA, Gountouna VE, McGonigle DJ, Logie RH (January 2010). "Loss of imagery phenomenology with intact visuo-spatial task performance: a case of 'blind imagination'". Neuropsychologia. 48 (1): 145–155. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.08.024. PMID 19733188. S2CID 207235666.
  15. ^ Posner L. "Aphantasia and the Blind Imagination". Grey Matters at Vassar College. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
  16. ^ Keogh R, Pearson J (August 2018). "The blind mind: No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia" (PDF). Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 105: 53–60. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012. PMID 29175093.
  17. ^ Keogh R, Bergmann J, Pearson J (May 2020). "Cortical excitability controls the strength of mental imagery". eLife. 9: e50232. doi:10.7554/eLife.50232. PMC 7200162. PMID 32369016.
  18. ^ Jacobs C, Schwarzkopf DS, Silvanto J (August 2018). "Visual working memory performance in aphantasia". Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. The Eye's Mind - visual imagination, neuroscience and the humanities. 105: 61–73. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.014. PMID 29150139.
  19. ^ Dawes AJ, Keogh R, Andrillon T, Pearson J (June 2020). "A cognitive profile of multi-sensory imagery, memory and dreaming in aphantasia". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 10022. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1010022D. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-65705-7. PMC 7308278. PMID 32572039.
  20. ^ Monzel M, Vetterlein A, Reuter M (June 2022). "Memory deficits in aphantasics are not restricted to autobiographical memory - Perspectives from the Dual Coding Approach". Journal of Neuropsychology. 16 (2): 444–461. doi:10.1111/jnp.12265. PMID 34719857. S2CID 240355759.
  21. ^ Bainbridge WA, Pounder Z, Eardley AF, Baker CI (February 2021). "Quantifying aphantasia through drawing: Those without visual imagery show deficits in object but not spatial memory". Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 135: 159–172. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.11.014. PMC 7856239. PMID 33383478.
  22. ^ Keogh R, Wicken M, Pearson J (October 2021). "Visual working memory in aphantasia: Retained accuracy and capacity with a different strategy". Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 143: 237–253. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2021.07.012. PMID 34482017. S2CID 236949022.
  23. ^ Wicken M, Keogh R, Pearson J (March 2021). "The critical role of mental imagery in human emotion: insights from fear-based imagery and aphantasia". Proceedings. Biological Sciences. 288 (1946): 20210267. doi:10.1098/rspb.2021.0267. PMC 7944105. PMID 33715433.
  24. ^ Monzel M, Keidel K, Reuter M (August 2021). "Imagine, and you will find - Lack of attentional guidance through visual imagery in aphantasics". Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. 83 (6): 2486–2497. doi:10.3758/s13414-021-02307-z. PMC 8302533. PMID 33880710.
  25. ^ Monzel M, Reuter M (January 2023). "Where's Wanda? The influence of visual imagery vividness on visual search speed measured by means of hidden object pictures". Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. 86 (1): 22–27. doi:10.3758/s13414-022-02645-6. PMC 10769966. PMID 36627474. S2CID 255594927.
  26. ^ Dance CJ, Jaquiery M, Eagleman DM, Porteous D, Zeman A, Simner J (March 2021). "What is the relationship between Aphantasia, Synaesthesia and Autism?" (PDF). Consciousness and Cognition. 89 (7): 103087. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2021.103087. hdl:10871/125036. PMID 33548575.
  27. ^ Milton F, Fulford J, Dance C, Gaddum J, Heuerman-Williamson B, Jones K, et al. (May 2021). "Behavioral and Neural Signatures of Visual Imagery Vividness Extremes: Aphantasia versus Hyperphantasia". Cerebral Cortex Communications. 2 (2): tgab035. doi:10.1093/texcom/tgab035. PMC 8186241. PMID 34296179.
  28. ^ de Vito S, Bartolomeo P (January 2016). "Refusing to imagine? On the possibility of psychogenic aphantasia. A commentary on Zeman et al. (2015)". Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 74: 334–335. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.06.013. PMID 26195151. S2CID 40642476.
  29. ^ Zeman A, Dewar M, Della Sala S (January 2016). "Reflections on aphantasia". Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 74: 336–337. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.08.015. hdl:20.500.11820/b67449c9-1804-4a8f-95ee-c320928c7eeb. PMID 26383091. Archived from the original on 2017-08-28.
  30. ^ Watson K. "An illustrator suddenly lost his ability to imagine or dream. It could be a post-COVID side effect called aphantasia". Insider. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  31. ^ Gaber TA, Eltemamy M (July 2021). "Post-COVID -19 aphantasia". Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry. 25 (3): 16–17. doi:10.1002/pnp.714.
  32. ^ Hinwar RP, Lambert AJ (14 October 2021). "Anauralia: The Silent Mind and Its Association With Aphantasia". Frontiers in Psychology. 12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.744213. PMC 8551557. PMID 34721222.
  33. ^ Pounder Z, Eardley A, Loveday C, Evans S (April 2023). "No clear evidence of a difference between individuals who self-report an absence of auditory imagery and typical imagers on auditory imagery tasks". PLOS ONE. 19 (4): e0300219. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0300219. PMC 10990234. PMID 38568916. This article incorporates text from this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  34. ^ Dance CJ, Ipser A, Simner J (January 2022). "The prevalence of aphantasia (imagery weakness) in the general population" (PDF). Consciousness and Cognition. 97: 103243. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2021.103243. PMID 34872033.
  35. ^ Sitek EJ, Konieczna S (November 2022). "Does progressive aphantasia exist? The hypothetical role of aphantasia in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases". The Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 45 (1): e299. doi:10.1017/S0140525X21002375. PMID 36396424. S2CID 253582735.
  36. ^ Dawes AJ, Keogh R, Robuck S, Pearson J (October 2022). "Memories with a blind mind: Remembering the past and imagining the future with aphantasia". Cognition. 227 (2–3): 105192. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105192. PMID 35752014. S2CID 249896360.
  37. ^ Blomkvist, A (2022). "Aphantasia: In search of a theory". Mind & Language. 38 (3): 866–888. doi:10.1111/mila.12432. S2CID 250231268.
  38. ^ Nanay B (2021). "Unconscious mental imagery". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 376 (1817): 20190689. doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0689. PMC 7741084. PMID 33308067.
  39. ^ Lorenzatti, J (2023). "Aphantasia: a philosophical approach". Philosophical Psychology: 1–29. doi:10.1080/09515089.2023.2253854.
  40. ^ Šekrst K (2022). "Having the Foggiest Idea: A Gradual Account on Mental Images". Journal of Neurophilosophy. 1 (2). doi:10.5281/zenodo.7254024.
  41. ^ Whiteley C (2021). "Aphantasia, imagination and dreaming". Philosophical Studies. 178 (2): 2111–2132. doi:10.1007/s11098-020-01526-8. S2CID 224888620.
  42. ^ "Exploring the Connections between Romantic Desire and Mental Imagery". The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology. 5 (10). 2023. doi:10.25236/FSST.2023.051018.
  43. ^ Rhodes J, May J, Nedza K, Clements L (April 2024). "Imagery training for athletes with low imagery abilities". Journal of Applied Sport Psychology. 36 (5): 831–844. doi:10.1080/10413200.2024.2337019.
  44. ^ Keogh R, Pearson J (April 2024). "Revisiting the blind mind: Still no evidence for sensory visual imagery in individuals with aphantasia". Neuroscience Research. 201: 27–30. doi:10.1016/j.neures.2024.01.008. PMID 38311033.
  45. ^ Zeman A (May 2024). "Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes". Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 28 (5): 467–480. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2024.02.007. PMID 38548492.
  46. ^ Gallagher J (9 April 2019). "Aphantasia: Ex-Pixar chief Ed Catmull says 'my mind's eye is blind'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  47. ^ Douma D (2017). The Presbyterian Philosopher: The Authorized Biography of Gordon H. Clark. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock. pp. 61, 231. ISBN 978-1-5326-0724-0.
  48. ^ Dale LK (15 January 2021). "Aphantasia, No Visual Imagination, and Video Games - Access-Ability". YouTube. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  49. ^ Jaiden Animations (Feb 10, 2024). "Jaiden's "Normal" Pokemon Gameshow". Retrieved 10 February 2024 – via YouTube.
  50. ^ John Green (Oct 1, 2023). "It's baffling to me that some of y'all see stuff in your mind". Retrieved 13 April 2024 – via Twitter/X.
  51. ^ "No Such Thing As A Jigsaw For The Queen". No Such Thing as a Fish. January 19, 2018.
  52. ^ Herring R (February 8, 2020). "Warming Up". RichardHerring.com. Retrieved 2020-07-01.
  53. ^ "46 Bags Of Chicharrónes". Player FM. 18 November 2018. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  54. ^ Lavelle D (April 10, 2019). "Aphantasia: why a Disney animator draws a blank on his own creations". The Guardian.
  55. ^ Kelly L (21 April 2020). "Aphantasia & memory". Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  56. ^ Lawrence M (April 1, 2020). "'I have no mind's eye': what is it like being an author with aphantasia?". The Guardian.
  57. ^ Lee YJ (2017-05-31). "Raven Strategem author Yoon Ha Lee on how his spaceships became bags of holding". SciFiNow. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  58. ^ Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast Book Club 17, 8th July 2022
  59. ^ No Priors Ep. 3 | With Stability AI's Emad Mostaque, 3 May 2023, retrieved 2023-05-21
  60. ^ Appleyard B (6 June 2018). "Derek Parfit's quest for perfection". NewStatesman. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  61. ^ MacFarquhar L (29 October 2011). "How To Be Good". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  62. ^ Cabral-Isabedra C (27 April 2016). "Mozilla Firefox Co-Creator Says He Can't Visualize Images: What You Need To Know About Aphantasia". Tech Times.
  63. ^ "Aphantasia: How It Feels To Be Blind In Your Mind". Facebook.[self-published source?]
  64. ^ Ross B (April 2016). "Aphantasia: How It Feels To Be Blind In Your Mind" (PDF). University of Exeter School of Medicine. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-03-28. Retrieved 2022-03-14.
  65. ^ Cabral-Isabedra C (27 April 2016). "Mozilla Firefox Co-Creator Says He Can't Visualize Images: What You Need To Know About Aphantasia". Tech Times. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  66. ^ Clemens A (1 August 2018). "When the Mind's Eye Is Blind". Scientific American. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  67. ^ "Aphantasia: when the mental image is missing". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. June 24, 2016.
  68. ^ Yglesias M (March 3, 2023). "'90s pop-punk, bad transportation secretaries, and journalistic navel-gazing". Slow Boring: Matt's Mailbag. Retrieved 4 March 2023.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Aphantasia.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aphantasia&oldid=1257426753"