Aphantasia as imagery blindsight

Abstract

An interesting letter published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences proposes that aphantasia might be better understood as "imagery blindsight" - where mental images are processed unconsciously without conscious awareness. The authors argue against the view that aphantasics completely lack mental imagery, pointing to compelling evidence that imagistic representations still exist beneath conscious awareness. People with aphantasia can perform well on mental rotation tasks and show similar brain activity patterns in visual cortex areas during imagery tasks as those with typical imagery abilities. This suggests that aphantasics may process mental imagery but lack conscious access to these images - similar to how blindsight patients can respond to visual information without consciously seeing it. The authors explain that when aphantasics report fewer episodic memory details, it might not reflect a memory deficit but rather their reluctance to report information they don't consciously experience. They compare this to blindsight patients who don't volunteer visual information they don't consciously see, despite evidence they've processed it. While acknowledging aphantasia is likely heterogeneous, with some individuals using alternative cognitive strategies, the researchers suggest most aphantasics possess imagery abilities but lack awareness of them - what they term "blank access." This perspective offers a new framework for understanding aphantasia and may provide insights into how visual consciousness works more broadly.

Authors

• Matthias Michel2
• Jorge Morales1
• Ned Block1
• Hakwan Lau1

Aphantasia as imagery blindsight

Abstract

An interesting letter published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences proposes that aphantasia might be better understood as "imagery blindsight" - where mental images are processed unconsciously without conscious awareness. The authors argue against the view that aphantasics completely lack mental imagery, pointing to compelling evidence that imagistic representations still exist beneath conscious awareness. People with aphantasia can perform well on mental rotation tasks and show similar brain activity patterns in visual cortex areas during imagery tasks as those with typical imagery abilities. This suggests that aphantasics may process mental imagery but lack conscious access to these images - similar to how blindsight patients can respond to visual information without consciously seeing it. The authors explain that when aphantasics report fewer episodic memory details, it might not reflect a memory deficit but rather their reluctance to report information they don't consciously experience. They compare this to blindsight patients who don't volunteer visual information they don't consciously see, despite evidence they've processed it. While acknowledging aphantasia is likely heterogeneous, with some individuals using alternative cognitive strategies, the researchers suggest most aphantasics possess imagery abilities but lack awareness of them - what they term "blank access." This perspective offers a new framework for understanding aphantasia and may provide insights into how visual consciousness works more broadly.

Authors

• Matthias Michel2
• Jorge Morales1
• Ned Block1
• Hakwan Lau1