Aphantasia is NOT "Imagery Blindsight"

1 min readByJen Kasdin

A recent article published in Psychology Today suggests aphantasia involves unconscious mental imagery and calls it “imagery blindsight” as opposed to a true lack of visual imagery. Blindsight is when there is neurological damage and the person is considered blind but they still have some sight although they are not consciously aware of it. The reasoning they are calling it imagery blindsight is because aphantasics score equally on cognitive tasks that are thought to require visual imagery. But they haven't considered we've had to adapt compensatory strategies our whole lives. I think this article is dismissive of our whole experience (or at least mine). Maybe I am too sensitive? What do you think?

What also really bothers me about this article is that my therapist sent it to me. This is the only article he ever sent me on aphantasia. I decided to go back to school to do aphantasia research and am currently applying to grad schools. I think I need a new therapist.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/illusions-delusions-and-reality/202605/the-mysterious-inner-world-of-aphantasia

Aphantasia is NOT "Imagery Blindsight"

1 min readByJen Kasdin

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/illusions-delusions-and-reality/202605/the-mysterious-inner-world-of-aphantasia

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Josh Camden•recently•edited

Thank you for setting out on aphantasia research. Don't be too hard on your therapist; they never learned about aphantasia in school. I wouldn't take anything you ever hear about aphantasia negatively. Personally i love even the bad stuff because its getting our name out there. I think any publicity is good publicity at this point. -- I disagree with the statement that, "aphantasics score equally on cognitive tasks that are thought to require visual imagery" however it is true that we may score equally on some of them. I also disagree with the logical relationship linking to blind sight. The patients with blind sight have brains that are processing visual queues even when the person cannot "see" them. This is not true with Aphantasia. When Aphants are asked to imagine a shark or other scary imagery, their brains do not show a fear response (unlike neurotypical people). -- Here are 2 Aphantasia Network videos that discuss imagery with Dr. Wilma Bainbridge. Both seem to be directly related to the topic of your post. The one on youtube has the participants draw pictures and you may be surprised. I looked but couldn't find the link for the video on the Aphantasia Network website, so linked the Aphantasia Network on youtube. Aphantasia Network - Quantifying Aphantasia through Drawing With Wilma Bainbridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4-9tfv1eps Aphantasia Network - Pictures Without Mental Pictures: How Aphantasia Is Rewriting a 50-Year-Old Theory of Memory https://aphantasia.com/video/pictures-without-mental-pictures

Neal White•recently•edited

"When Aphants are asked to imagine a shark or other scary imagery, their brains do not show a fear response (unlike neurotypical people)." There may be more neuro diversity among us than is widely known. I have extreme aphantasia, yet when I imagined a shark, I felt a surge of adrenaline, which is almost certainly a fear response. I wonder if this is because, as a scuba diver, I've had first-hand experience with sharks.

Josh Camden•recently•edited

I spent some time in key west. One day i swam up to a busted pipe, partially buried underwater, and suddenly out swam a shark. lol, i about swallowed my heart. it all happened too fast for me to have any reaction. It swam out then was gone. It was a lemon shark, but darn it, i was so close that my heart didn't have the time to differentiate. lol, my only shark story and its a lemon shark :)

Liên Vũ Kim•recently•edited

That's what I meant when I say "salvaged thoughts", by the way.

Liên Vũ Kim•recently•edited

To be frank, the article is technically not wrong. Aphantasia has not been widely researched, but the current consensus is that aphantasia forces the brain to think about objects more figuratively. This meant that the complementary strategies are just to salvage whatever is remaining inside the brain, rather than actively getting the literal content.

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Josh Camden•recently•edited

Neal White•recently•edited

Josh Camden•recently•edited

Liên Vũ Kim•recently•edited

That's what I meant when I say "salvaged thoughts", by the way.

Liên Vũ Kim•recently•edited