Research library
Papers about aphantasia and mental imagery, with summaries in plain words. The summaries are generated by AI and may contain errors.
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Nanay · Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Aphantasia is a heterogeneous condition with distinct subtypes, including variations in voluntary control and sensory modalities. Recognizing these differences is essential for developing accurate experimental methodologies and explanations.
Nanay · Neuropsychologia
Aphantasia is not a monolithic condition but a heterogeneous spectrum with diverse underlying causes. Recognizing this complexity helps researchers better understand the interpersonal differences in imagery vividness across the entire population.
Nanay · Mind & Language
This short reply to three commentaries on a 2023 book about mental imagery restates the book's view that aphantasia is not a single condition: many people with it still dream in images or have flashbacks but cannot call up images at will, which differs from having no conscious imagery at all. Most of the reply concerns other questions, chiefly how the book's idea that imagery forms part of everyday seeing differs from predictive processing theories, and how philosophy can work with the sciences of the mind. It reports no new data.
Nanay · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
A philosophy paper arguing that mental imagery need not be conscious, drawing on stroke patients with neglect and on imagery that primes perception even when people try not to imagine. For aphantasia, it points to one person who reported no imagery yet did about as well as others on a task thought to need it, and proposes that some people with aphantasia have imagery they are not aware of. It notes that 15 people with aphantasia showed no priming from deliberate imagery, argues that this leaves involuntary, unconscious imagery untested, and suggests brain scans to settle the question.