Congenital aphantasia is present from birth, usually discovered later in life. Unlike acquired aphantasia, there was never mental imagery to lose. It can affect one sense or several.
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.
Kwaśniak and colleagues · Scientific Reports
People with aphantasia showed reduced activation in the right middle frontal gyrus and right motor cortex during motor imagery tasks. This suggests that aphantasia involves differences in attentional switching and neural processing beyond just visual imagery.
Pounder and colleagues · Cogent Psychology
Six women living in the UK who could not form images at will were interviewed about life with aphantasia. Difficulties with recalling faces, reliving personal memories and finding their way came up most, though each woman described a different mix. All six reported images in dreams, some only rarely; several had sudden images at times of intense emotion or deep relaxation, and some felt their images were there but out of reach. All six said they could not imagine smells or tastes.
Zeman and colleagues · Cortex
This short definition, published in a special issue of the journal Cortex, describes aphantasia as the absence or near-absence of imagery, most often the inability to picture things while fully awake, as opposed to simply thinking about them. Aphantasia affects deliberate imagery, may affect spontaneous imagery, and often leaves imagery in dreams intact. It can be lifelong or acquired, and the note proposes labels such as visual, auditory, multisensory and global aphantasia, while recording that some researchers keep the word for vision alone.
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.