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Aphantasia, imagination and dreaming

DOI: 10.1007/s11098-020-01526-8
Whiteley, C. M. K. (2021). Aphantasia, imagination and dreaming. Philosophical Studies, 178(6), 2111–2132. doi:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11098-020-01526-8

Abstract

Aphantasia is a recently discovered disorder characterised by the total incapacity to generate visual forms of mental imagery. This paper proposes that aphantasia raises important theoretical concerns for the ongoing debate in the philosophy and science of consciousness over the nature of dreams. Recent studies of aphantasia and its neurobehavioral correlates reveal that the majority of aphantasics, whilst unable to produce visual imagery while awake, nevertheless retain the capacity to experiencerich visual dreams.This finding constitutes a novel explanandum for theories of dreaming. Specifically, I argue that the recent dream reports of aphantasics constitute an empirical challenge to the emerging family of views which claim that dreams are essentially imaginative experiences, constitutively involving the kinds of mental imagery which aphantasics,ex-hypothesi,lack. After presenting this challenge in the context of Jonathan Ichikawa’s recent arguments for this view, I argue that this empirical challenge may be overcome if the imagination theorist abandons Ichikawa’s account of dreaming in favour of a modified version. This involves the claim that dreams are essentially inactive and constitutively involvenon voluntaryforms of imagination. I conclude with a suggestion for further research which can test the viability of this alternative hypothesis, and move the debate forward.

Authors

  • Cecily M. K. Whiteley1

What This Study Is About

Researchers wanted to know why people with aphantasia—the inability to create "mental imagery" (picturing things in your mind)—often still experience vivid, colorful dreams. If you can’t visualize a red apple while awake, how can your brain "see" a whole world while you sleep?

How They Studied It

This wasn't a lab experiment with goggles and sensors; it was a deep dive into the "philosophy of mind." The author looked at data from previous studies involving 21 people with aphantasia and 121 "control" participants (people with typical mental imagery). They compared how these groups described their thoughts versus their dreams to see if the old scientific theories about dreaming still made sense.

What They Found

The results were a major plot twist for scientists! Even though the participants couldn't picture a single shape while awake, 81% of people with aphantasia reported having rich, visual dreams.
This discovery challenges a popular theory that dreaming is just "imagining while asleep." If dreaming and imagining were the same thing, people with aphantasia shouldn't be able to do either. Instead, the study found that for most aphantasics, the "movie screen" in their head works fine during sleep—they just can't turn it on manually while they're awake.

What This Might Mean

This suggests that our brains have two different systems for "seeing" things internally. Think of it like a TV: aphantasia might be a broken remote control (you can’t choose the channel), but the TV itself still works and turns on automatically when you dream.
While this theory is exciting, we have to be careful. This paper relies on what people *say* they experience, which can be hard to measure perfectly. We still need more research using brain scans to see exactly which "wires" are connected differently.

One Interesting Detail

The study mentions that nearly half of the aphantasic participants (48%) experienced "earworms"—those annoying songs that get stuck in your head—proving that while their *visual* imagination is quiet, their *auditory* (sound) imagination can be very loud!
This summary was generated by AI and may contain errors. Always refer to the original paper for accuracy.