Motor aphantasia is the inability to mentally rehearse physical movement. It shows up most in activities that lean on imagined practice, like sports or dance.
Researchers expand aphantasia definition beyond "inability to visualize." This broader framework impacts how we understand and identify with the condition.
Tom Ebeyer · January 2025
From guided imagery to imagined athletic practices, are aphantasics disadvantaged because they lack a mind’s eye?
Jim Collison · July 2023
Peruski · Journal of Neurophysiology
Aphantasics showed reduced right-brain activation and increased left middle frontal gyrus activity during motor imagery. This suggests they use compensatory semantic strategies, indicating mental imagery is not essential for motor cognition.
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.
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.
