Is congenital aphantasia different to acquired aphantasia in the brain ?
Is congenital aphantasia different to acquired aphantasia in the brain ?
From what we understand, congenital aphantasia and acquired aphantasia do differ in the brain. Congenital aphantasia is present from birth and involves differences in brain development, particularly in the connectivity and function of areas related to visual imagery and memory. Acquired aphantasia occurs due to brain injury or trauma later in life, typically involving damage to specific brain regions responsible for visual processing and memory.
Interestingly, it was an acquired case of aphantasia, Patient MX, that led to the identification of congenital aphantasia. After the paper “A case of ‘blind imagination’,” in which Patient MX describes losing the ability to visualize, was published, 21 people with congenital aphantasia reported that they had never been able to visualize. Here’s a link to Dr. Zeman’s original paper:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/26792259_Loss_of_imagery_phenomenology_with_intact_visuo-spatial_task_performance_A_case_of_’blind_imagination’