Mapping the imageless mind: Towards a taxonomy of aphantasia

Abstract

Although cases of absent mental imagery have been reported for more than a century (Galton, 1880), systematic investigation was reignited by Zeman et al. (2015), who introduced the term congenital aphantasia to describe the lifelong inability to form mental images. Their work triggered a surge of studies producing diverse and sometimes contradictory conclusions. The lack of a taxonomy may contribute to this confusion by conflating different phenomena under a single label. While Zeman and colleagues described this phenomenon in otherwise healthy individuals, similar phenomena have also been observed in clinical populations. Since Charcot’s seminal description of Monsieur X (Charcot and Bernard, 1883) (see Bartolomeo, 2008 for an English translation), neurologists have documented acquired cases of imagery loss (reviews in Bartolomeo, 2002, 2008; Bartolomeo et al., 2020; Goldenberg, 1993; Spagna, 2022). Yet, in some cases, including Monsieur X, the abrupt disappearance of imagery has been argued to reflect psychogenic rather than organic origins (Zago et al., 2011). These observations indicate that aphantasia is a heterogeneous phenomenon, and suggest the existence of at least three distinct forms: neurological, psychogenic, and congenital aphantasia.