Three ways to engage with aphantasia research on the Network.
Three ways to engage with aphantasia research on the Network.
Explore a comprehensive collection of academic papers, research studies, and scientific publications about aphantasia, imagery, and cognitive neuroscience.
Explore a comprehensive collection of academic papers, research studies, and scientific publications about aphantasia, imagery, and cognitive neuroscience.
Researchers found that Akhter Ahsen’s ISM model anticipated modern findings on the embodied and emotional nature of mental imagery. This suggests historical clinical frameworks can help bridge the gap between neuroscience and therapeutic practice.
Syed, A., & Neelofur, S. (n.d.). A narrative review of eidetic imagery and the early architecture of mental imagery research: revisiting akhter ahsen’s foundational contributions. Medical Research Archives. doi:10.18103/mra.v14i4.7364
Aphantasic individuals cannot generate visual motor imagery but can experience kinaesthetic imagery, especially when primed by prior movement. This suggests motor simulation remains a viable training tool for this population.
Wright, D. J., Scott, M. W., Esselaar, M., Braithwaite, E. C., & Holmes, P. S. (2026). Motor imagery abilities in individuals who experience aphantasia. Neuropsychologia, 230, 109530. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109530
Aphantasia reveals that abstract thought does not require the capacity to manipulate mental images. This suggests that higher-level cognition can function independently of imagistic processes.
Tooming, U., & Jakapi, R. (2026). Aphantasia as a challenge for humean abstraction. Neuropsychologia, 227, 109465. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109465
Researchers found that Western musical modes elicit systematic patterns of visual and olfactory imagery. This indicates musical modes are associated with multiple sensory representations extending beyond simple feature-level correspondences.
Pimentel Aldaz, O., & Spence, C. (2026). Seeing scent in sound: exploratory spontaneous visual and olfactory mental imagery elicited by musical modes. Multisensory Research, 1–45. doi:10.1163/22134808-bja10200
Older adults reported more vivid visual and multisensory imagery, while aphantasia was more prevalent in younger groups. This suggests that age should be considered when identifying aphantasia and setting diagnostic thresholds.
Takahashi, J., Omura, K., & Sugimura, S. (2026). Age differences in visual and multisensory imagery: notes on distributions of aphantasia and hyperphantasia in individuals aged 20s–70s. Neuropsychologia, 226, 109433. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109433
VVIQ items showed high redundancy for identifying aphantasia, with inter-item correlations ranging from .79 to .90. A single screening question about visualizing a familiar place achieved high specificity (98.8%) and sensitivity (97.5%) against the strictest definition of core aphantasia (VVIQ = 16), suggesting the full 16-item questionnaire is unnecessary for screening purposes.
Monzel, M., Pickering, J. W., Condon, D. M., Beran, M. J., & Ebeyer, T. (2026). Reimagining the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire as a single item screener for aphantasia. Consciousness and Cognition, 142, 104061. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2026.104061
Researchers discovered that aphantasia and vividness judgements are compromised by poorly defined references for typical imagery. This indicates that current measures like the VVIQ may be invalid and misleading.
Sulfaro, A. A. (2026). Mental image vividness and aphantasia judgements are fundamentally compromised by overlooked definition problems. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 33(5). doi:10.3758/s13423-026-02928-1
Aphantasics showed normal visual working memory performance and decodable neural representations in the visual cortex. This suggests aphantasia is a lack of conscious awareness rather than an inability to generate or store visual information.
Knight, K. F., Milton, F., & Zeman, A. (2026). Aphantasia and visual working memory: no direct evidence of impaired visual working memory in aphantasics, either in behavioral performance or the accuracy of a multivoxel pattern classifier. Neuropsychologia, 226, 109430. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109430
Researchers found that visual hallucinations are often linked to more vivid mental imagery and overactive visual brain regions. This suggests hallucinations may arise when an overactive imagery system is misidentified as external reality.
Panigutti, M., Bechi Gabrielli, G., Conti, D., Accinni, T., Zazzaro, G., Di Vita, A., Guariglia, C., & D’Antonio, F. (2026). Seeing without eyes: relation between visual mental imagery and visual hallucinations. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 184, 106621. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106621
Researchers discovered that mental imagery reactivates the same sensory code as perception at the single-neuron level. This suggests that aphantasia may stem from how this shared activity is generated, modulated, or read out by the brain.
Fleming, S. M., & Dijkstra, N. (2026). A neuronal basis for mental imagery. Cell Research. doi:10.1038/s41422-026-01260-6
Researchers found that brain areas process mental imagery using modality-invariant properties rather than sensory-specific divisions. This suggests mental imagery and aphantasia are best understood through a supramodal framework.
Calzavarini, F. (2026). Rethinking modality-specificity in mental imagery. Synthese, 207(5). doi:10.1007/s11229-026-05561-6
Researchers found that imagery arises from a network of high-level visual regions and control hubs rather than the early visual cortex. This suggests aphantasia is a functional disconnection from intact visual representations.
Bartolomeo, P. (2026). Aphantasia and the mechanisms of visual mental imagery. Annual Review of Vision Science. doi:10.1146/annurev-vision-110425-105103
Researchers discovered that 13.9% of people experience aphantasia in at least one of eight sensory modalities. This challenges the traditional view of aphantasia as a purely visual phenomenon.
New, B., Barra, J., Chauvin, A., Huson, N., & Lœvenbruck, H. (2026). Multimodal mental imagery profiles and the prevalence of aphantasia and hyperphantasia in the general population. Cortex. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.019
Aphantasics performed as well as controls on feature-binding tasks even when verbal labeling was difficult. This suggests that mental imagery is not necessary for conjunctive binding, which likely relies on automatic mechanisms.
Delhaye, E., Fritz, P., Martial, C., & Bastin, C. (2026). The role of visual imagery and verbal coding in short-term memory conjunctive binding: evidence from aphantasia. Consciousness and Cognition, 141, 104036. doi:10.1016/j.concog.2026.104036
Researchers found that neural activity in aphantasia represents rudimentary sensory precursors rather than unconscious imagery. This suggests the condition stems from a failure in multi-stage integration and helps categorize distinct subtypes.
Scholz, C. O., Monzel, M., Kvamme, T. L., Liu, J., & Silvanto, J. (2026). An integration model of mental imagery and aphantasia: conceptual framework, neuromechanistic pathways, and clinical implications. Neuropsychologia, 225, 109401. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109401
Visual imagery features centrally in many theories of spatial navigation, yet its contribution to wayfinding is unclear. Sea Hero Quest (SHQ), a navigation game for mobile devices that assesses spatial learning via visual maps and virtual environments, is well-suited to investigate the role of imagery in wayfinding. We examined if participants with aphantasia who report experiencing a lack of visual imagery would display greater difficulties navigating relative to controls on SHQ as demands on encoding complex visual information increase. Aphantasic participants (n=63, Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire <32) and controls (n=99, VVIQ=33-80) completed self-report measures of navigation, memory, and 8 SHQ levels varying in path complexity, destinations, and map characteristics. To estimate performance on the SHQ, trajectory length and completion time were normalised to thousands of controls (n=1203 to 246,329), comparable to each participant in terms of age and gender, and group difference and correlation analyses were conducted for self-report measures and SHQ metrics. Aphantasic participants scored significantly lower on self-report spatial and memory measures and took substantially more time than both control groups to complete high-difficulty levels, but not training or low-difficulty levels, relative to controls. Imagery ability was associated with performance on difficult levels as well as self-reported spatial ability and memory. Map viewing duration was not significantly associated with any variable. The findings indicate that visual imagery plays a central role in spatial navigation when recall of complex visual information is necessary. Wayfinding difficulties observed in the aphantasic individuals appear to be robust to alternative strategies, such as verbal encoding, which is unlikely sufficient to integrate across path length and circuitousness, decision points, and visibility factors that define environmental complexity.
Li, A., Coutrot, A., Faromika, T. I., Spiers, H. J., & Shayna Rosenbaum, R. (2026). Aphantasia is associated with spatial memory and navigation difficulties in complex virtual environments. Neuropsychologia, 109517. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109517
Aphantasic individuals showed a robust picture superiority effect and recalled symbols better than pictures. This challenges dual-coding theory by demonstrating that visual imagery is not essential for the memory advantages of image-based stimuli.
Yan, M., Roberts, B. R., & Bainbridge, W. A. (2026). Challenging dual-coding theory: picture superiority effects persist in aphantasia. Neuropsychologia, 225, 109391. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109391
People with aphantasia responded faster than controls on language tasks, with neither group showing expected switching costs. This suggests that mental imagery is not required for language comprehension and may even slow processing.
Moskoff, T. (2026). Utilizing aphantasia to examine embodied cognition in the visual modality. University of Colorado Honors Journal. doi:10.33011/cuhj20264961
Researchers propose that imagery reshapes spontaneous neural activity via inhibitory feedback rather than driving new spikes in early visual areas. This suggests the spectrum from aphantasia to hyperphantasia is driven by the strength of cortical inhibition.
Koenig-Robert, R., Pace, T., & Pearson, J. (2026). Spiking the mind: rethinking the role of cortical feedback in visual mental imagery.. Psychological Review. doi:10.1037/rev0000621
Aphantasics performed worse on iconic memory tasks but showed no deficits in working memory compared to controls. This suggests that mental imagery enhances early sensory processing before non-visual strategies can be effectively applied.
Monzel, M., Yang, C., Plancher, G., Milton, F., & Reuter, M. (2026). Influences of mental imagery at different stages of atkinson’s and shiffrin’s modal model: visual imagery is associated with enhanced iconic memory performance. Cortex. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2026.04.011
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