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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Sulfaro, Robinson and Carlson · Consciousness and Cognition
Researchers found that auditory imagery has a shorter onset and longer duration than visual imagery, with distinct patterns of automaticity across modalities. This suggests that different sensory imageries rely on unique temporal and neural mechanisms rather than a single unified process.
Sulfaro, Robinson and Carlson · Neuroscience of Consciousness
Researchers found that sensory input competes with mental imagery in a hierarchical neural network, preventing thoughts from dominating low-level sensory regions. This explains why mental imagery feels less vivid than real perception and how aphantasia arises from overweighted bottom-up signals.
Sulfaro, Robinson and Carlson
Researchers found that competition from real-world sensory input prevents mental images from becoming fully visible hallucinations. This suggests that the "quasi-sensory" nature of imagery is a direct result of perceptual interference.
Preece and colleagues · Personality and Individual Differences
The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire was found to reliably measure emotional processing deficits across both positive and negative valences. This allows for more nuanced clinical assessment of how individuals appraise different emotional states.