Topic: Cognition

How do people with aphantasia think? While lacking mental imagery, aphantasics develop diverse cognitive strategies – often relying on verbal, semantic, or abstract thought patterns. This cognitive variation challenges traditional assumptions about the role of mental imagery in thinking, creativity, learning, memory, and more.

Research suggests aphantasia influences but doesn’t impair cognitive processes. Many aphantasics report thinking in words, concepts, or other non-visual and non-sensory forms, demonstrating the brain’s remarkable adaptability.

On this page, you’ll find research exploring aphantasic cognition, personal accounts of thinking styles, and discussions about different cognitive strategies used by the aphantasia community.

The concept of 'tokens' and 'types' helped me understand how we think differently: visualizers use specific imagery, while aphantasics excel in abstract thinking.
Visualize (picture, imagine, whatever you want to call it) a ball on a table. Now, imagine someone walks up to the table and gives the ball a push. What happens to the ball?
Understanding the hidden assumptions that lead to biases against aphantasics’ cognitive abilities.
How do you describe aphantasia? Founder of Aphantasia Network often gets asked this question. His answer? Think of a horse.
August 30, 2024
I had my mind blown 2 nights ago when I realized I have Aphantasia through a YouTube video. I've been deep in the sauce since and have been consuming a ...
April 10, 2024
OK – first day member: I discovered Aphantasia maybe 5 years ago. My wife would talk about how she pictured this or that. I thought nothing about it ...
June 8, 2021
I’m an engineer/scientist, and I have always been driven to try to understand how things work, and to use that understanding to solve real-world proble...
May 25, 2021
I’ve been surprised so much watching a clip about “aphantasia” saying “your mind is blind” just because a picture does not pop ...
April 28, 2021
I was 7 years old when I realized I did not have visual imagery and forgot about it.30 years later, I mentioned it to a student, and she was shocked.  “...
Watch this extended interview with Mac Shine answering the community’s questions about "What It's Like To Be A Neuroscientist With Aphantasia" in this live Q&A session. Hosted by Tom Ebeyer.
August 30, 2023
Neuroscientist Mac Shine delves into aphantasia—a condition he personally experiences—to challenge conventional views on perception, explore the neuroscience of imagination, and draw unexpected parallels between the cognitive functions of aphantasics and large language models like ChatGPT-4.
August 30, 2023
Christian Scholz answers the community’s questions about 'Meta-Imagination and The Language Game of Visualising' in this live Q&A. Hosted by Tom Ebeyer.
June 28, 2023
Discover how individuals with aphantasia engage in imaginative exercises using language and how this experience differs from visualizers. Christian Scholz presents a new theoretical concept called meta-imagination.
June 28, 2023
Julia Simner addresses a common misconception that aphantasics must be verbal thinkers in this presentation from the 2021 Extreme Imagination Conference.
October 21, 2021