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Investigating mental simulation during sentence comprehension in aphantasia

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109443
Speed, L. J., Mak, M., & McRae, K. (2026). Investigating mental simulation during sentence comprehension in aphantasia. Neuropsychologia, 109443. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109443

Abstract

Aphantasia is a condition in which individuals do not consciously experience visual imagery. There is ongoing debate concerning whether language comprehension involves visual imagery or only unconscious mental simulation (modality-specific perceptual reactivation). To test this directly, we investigated mental simulation during sentence comprehension in a group of individuals with aphantasia. We compared aphantasics to controls on their response time and accuracy on a sentence-picture verification task. In two experiments, participants read sentences (e.g., Melissa's dog was hard to find in the mud) and had to decide whether a subsequently presented image (e.g., a dog) was mentioned in the sentence or not. In Experiment 1 the presented picture could match or mismatch the sentence in terms of the object's implied color, whereas in Experiment 2 the presented picture could match or mismatch the sentence in implied distance (a near versus far away object). In Experiment 1, both controls and aphantasics showed a match effect, suggesting both groups engaged in mental simulation of object color. In contrast to previous work, in Experiment 2 we found no evidence of mental simulation of distance in controls (or aphantasics). Our results are in line with the conclusion that voluntary, conscious visual imagery and involuntary, unconscious mental simulation are separate processes. We interpret the results as evidence for unconscious, involuntary mental simulation during sentence comprehension in aphantasia.

Authors

  • Laura J. Speed4
  • Marloes Mak2
  • Ken McRae2

What This Study Is About

Researchers wanted to know if people with aphantasia—the inability to voluntarily create mental imagery (pictures in the mind’s eye)—still unconsciously "picture" details like color and size when they read sentences.

How They Studied It

The researchers worked with 68 people with aphantasia and over 100 "control" participants (people with typical mental imagery).
Participants performed a "sentence-picture verification task." They read a sentence like, *"The dog was hard to see in the snow,"* which implies the dog is white. Then, they were shown a picture of a dog that was either white (a match) or brown (a mismatch). They had to press a button as fast as possible to say if the animal in the picture was the one mentioned in the sentence.

What They Found

In the color experiment, both groups were significantly faster at reacting when the picture matched the color implied by the sentence. Even though the participants with aphantasia couldn't "see" a white dog in their minds, their brains were still preparing for the color white!
However, in a second experiment about distance (e.g., seeing a fire hydrant "from afar"), neither group showed a "match effect." This suggests that our brains might simulate some details, like color, more automatically than others, like distance.

What This Might Mean

This study suggests that mental imagery (the conscious "movie" in your head) and mental simulation (the brain’s unconscious way of processing words) are two different things.
Think of it like a computer: even if the monitor is turned off (aphantasia), the processor is still running the code behind the scenes. While this study is a great step forward, it’s important to remember it only looked at color and distance; we don't yet know if this "unconscious picturing" happens for everything we read.

One Interesting Detail

Surprisingly, the "match effect" for color was actually larger in people with aphantasia than in the control group! This might suggest that because aphantasics don't have conscious pictures to look at, their brains rely even more heavily on these unconscious "behind-the-scenes" simulations to understand language.
This summary was generated by AI and may contain errors. Always refer to the original paper for accuracy.