Many people have no mental imagery. What’s going on in their brains?
Nature • • technology
Key Points:
- Approximately 4% of people experience aphantasia, a condition characterized by weak or absent mental imagery, where individuals cannot visualize images in their mind’s eye despite having concepts or associations related to them.
- The term aphantasia was coined in 2015 by neurologist Adam Zeman after studying patients who lacked mental imagery, with research indicating it may have a genetic component and varying effects on sensory modalities and dreaming.
- Despite lacking mental imagery, people with aphantasia generally perform well on memory and spatial tasks, suggesting the condition does not significantly impair behavior or creativity, but represents a natural variation in mental imagery ability.
- Researchers have developed objective methods to measure mental imagery strength, such as binocular rivalry tests and physiological responses like pupil constriction
