aphantasia / aphantasie
Synonyms: blind imagination, congenital aphantasia, defective revisualizatiion, image generation process deficit, visual irreminiscence
Synonymes : aphantasie congénitale
Group: Human, Neuropsychology, Psychology
Groupe : Homme, Neuropsychologie, Psychologie
Definition: "condition of reduced or absent voluntary imagery" (Zeman et al., 2015, p. 379).
Définition : « Condition dans laquelle l'imagerie mentale volontaire est réduite ou absente » (Zeman et al., 2015, p. 379).
Broader term: cognitive disorder
Terme générique : trouble cognitif
Related terms: hyperphantasia, autobiographical memory, episodic memory, memory vividness
Termes associés : hyperphantasie, mémoire autobiographique, mémoire épisodique, vivacité du souvenir
Disorder of: mental imagery
Has study methods: Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire
Selected bibliography: Arcangeli, M. (2023). Aphantasia demystified. Synthese, 201(2), 31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-04027-9 [Study type: literature review / Access: closed], Blomkvist, A., & Marks, D. F. (2023). Defining and ‘diagnosing’ aphantasia: Condition or individual difference? Cortex, 169, 220–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2023.09.004 [Study type: conceptual analysis, literature review / Access: closed], Blomkvist, A. (2023). Aphantasia: In search of a theory. Mind & Language, 38(3), 866-888. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12432 [Study type: literature review / Access: open], Cavedon-Taylor, D. (2022). Aphantasia and psychological disorder: Current connections, defining the imagery deficit and future directions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.822989 [Study type: literature review / Access: open], Dance, C. J., Ipser, A., & Simner, J. (2022). The prevalence of aphantasia (imagery weakness) in the general population. Consciousness and Cognition, 97, 103243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103243 [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed], Dawes, A. J., Keogh, R., Andrillon, T., & Pearson, J. (2020). A cognitive profile of multi-sensory imagery, memory and dreaming in aphantasia. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 10022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65705-7 [Study type: empirical study / Access: open], Keogh, R., & Pearson, J. (2018). The blind mind : No sensory visual imagery in aphantasia. Cortex, 105, 53‑60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2017.10.012 [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed], Keogh, R., Pearson, J., & Zeman, A. (2021). Aphantasia : The science of visual imagery extremes. In J. J. S. Barton & A. Leff (Eds.), Handbook of Clinical Neurology (Vol. 178, p. 277‑296). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821377-3.00012-X [Study type: literature review / Access: closed], Milton, F., Fulford, J., Dance, C., Gaddum, J., Heuerman-Williamson, B., Jones, K., Knight, K. F., MacKisack, M., Winlove, C., & Zeman, A. (2021). Behavioral and neural signatures of visual imagery vividness extremes : Aphantasia versus hyperphantasia. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 2(2). https://doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgab035 [Study type: empirical study / Access: open], Monzel, M., Vetterlein, A., & Reuter, M. (2022). Memory deficits in aphantasics are not restricted to autobiographical memory – Perspectives from the Dual Coding Approach. Journal of Neuropsychology, 16(2), 444–461. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnp.12265 [Study type: empirical study / Access: open], Monzel, M., Vetterlein, A., & Reuter, M. (2023). No general pathological significance of aphantasia: An evaluation based on criteria for mental disorders. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 64(3), 314-324. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12887 [Study type: empirical study / Access: open], Palermo, L., Boccia, M., Piccardi, L., & Nori, R. (2022). Congenital lack and extraordinary ability in object and spatial imagery: An investigation on sub-types of aphantasia and hyperphantasia. Consciousness and Cognition, 103, 103360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2022.103360 [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed], Zeman, A., Milton, F., Della Sala, S., Dewar, M., Frayling, T., Gaddum, J., Hattersley, A., Heuerman-Williamson, B., Jones, K., MacKisack, M., & Winlove, C. (2020). Phantasia–The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes. Cortex, 130, 426–440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.003 [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed], Zeman, A. (in press). Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: Exploring imagery vividness extremes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2024.02.007 [Study type: literature review / Access: open], Zeman, A. Z. J., Della Sala, S., Torrens, L. A., Gountouna, V.-E., McGonigle, D. J., & Logie, R. H. (2010). Loss of imagery phenomenology with intact visuo-spatial task performance : A case of ‘blind imagination’. Neuropsychologia, 48(1), 145‑155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.08.024 [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed], Zeman, A., Dewar, M., & Della Sala, S. (2015). Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia. Cortex, 73, 378‑380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.05.019 [Study type: empirical study / Access: closed], Zeman, A., Dewar, M., & Della Sala, S. (2016). Reflections on aphantasia. Cortex, 74, 336‑337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2015.08.015 [Study type: literature review / Access: closed]
Dataset citations: Bainbridge, W. A., Pounder, Z., Eardley, A., & Baker, C. I. (2021, January 15). Quantifying Aphantasia through drawing: Those without visual imagery show deficits in object but not spatial memory. https://osf.io/cahyd, Keogh, R. (2021, July 30). VWM and aphantasia. https://osf.io/8r3eq