Imagine losing the ability to picture loved ones' faces or replay a memory, not from birth but later in life. Acquired aphantasia is the loss of mental imagery due to injury, illness, or other medical cause.
Ravindren, R and Veedu · Discover Neuroscience
A patient with acquired aphantasia and frontal lobe lesions developed Cotard's syndrome, believing she had lost her mind. This suggests that the inability to generate mental imagery can disrupt self-referential processing and the subjective experience of having a mind.
Gao, Nagai and Silvanto · Neuropsychologia
People who lost their mental imagery reported more childhood trauma, anxiety, heart and breathing symptoms, and ADHD and autism traits than typical imagers. This suggests acquired aphantasia can follow emotional pathways as well as brain injury.
Wang and colleagues · Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Posters
A VR system using guided imagery and spatial tasks significantly improved imagery clarity and recall in people with imagery deficits. This suggests that leveraging preserved spatial cognition can help rebuild visual imagery pathways.
Bartolomeo · Neuropsychologia
In a short conceptual paper, the author proposes sorting aphantasia into at least three forms: neurological, psychogenic and congenital. He offers it as an initial taxonomy for research that has reached contradictory conclusions.
Larner · Neuropsychologia
Historical reports of congenital and acquired aphantasia exist dating back to the late 19th century. This provides a sound epistemic basis for the retrospective diagnosis of aphantasia and supports its status as a transhistorical condition.
Zeman and colleagues · Cortex
Researchers define aphantasia as the absence of voluntary sensory imagery, often extending beyond vision to other modalities. This formal definition establishes a standardized framework for classifying multisensory and global imagery deficits.
Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry
A patient developed acute memory loss following COVID-19, consistent with functional cognitive disorder. This suggests that post-viral syndromes may trigger sudden-onset cognitive changes through neurovascular or immunological dysfunction.
Knowles, Jones and Zeman · Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
In 88 people who lost their visual imagery, the commonest triggers were head injury, mood disorders and stroke. This suggests acquired aphantasia can follow both neurological and psychological disorders.
Gaber and Eltemamy · Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry
A 59-year-old woman found she could no longer picture her house or family in her mind after a mild case of COVID-19. The authors suggest that uncommon problems like this acquired aphantasia can follow even mild COVID-19.
Bumgardner, Yuan and Chiu · Oxford Medical Case Reports
A 62-year-old man lost his mental imagery during a complicated hospital stay for a stem cell transplant, and six months later had improved only slightly. The cause is unknown; the authors suspect low oxygen reaching the brain.
Luke · Journal of Psychedelic Studies
A man with apparently lifelong aphantasia saw no mental images despite reportedly using DMT over 1,000 times, unlike a man whose imagery improved after ayahuasca. The author proposes that aphantasia present from birth may resist change.