Olfactory

Can you smell your grandmother's kitchen in your mind? Olfactory aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily conjure smell, on its own or alongside other missing senses.

Olfactory

Can you smell your grandmother's kitchen in your mind? Olfactory aphantasia is the inability to voluntarily conjure smell, on its own or alongside other missing senses.

Reference

Varieties of aphantasia

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.

Nanay, B. (2025). Varieties of aphantasia. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 29(11), 965–966. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.06.008

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Reference

A decade of aphantasia research – and still going!

A decade of research shows aphantasia is a heterogeneous condition with varying subtypes and preserved cognitive performance. This suggests that conscious visual imagery is not required for complex tasks like memory and spatial reasoning.

Zeman, A. (2025). A decade of aphantasia research – and still going!. Neuropsychologia, 219, 109278. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2025.109278

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aphantasia definition, aphantasia definitions

Article

Expanding Aphantasia Definition: Researchers Propose New Boundaries

Researchers expand aphantasia definition beyond "inability to visualize." This broader framework impacts how we understand and identify with the condition.

recentlyby Tom Ebeyer and

Reference

Definition: Aphantasia

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.

Zeman, A., Monzel, M., Pearson, J., Scholz, C. O., & Simner, J. (2025). Definition: aphantasia. Cortex, 182, 212–213. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2024.07.019

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Reference

Proposal for a consistent definition of aphantasia and hyperphantasia: A response to Lambert and Sibley (2022) and Simner and Dance (2022)

Researchers propose defining aphantasia as the absence or reduction of voluntary sensory imagery across any modality. This unified terminology avoids a proliferation of new terms while acknowledging that imagery deficits can be specific or multisensory.

Monzel, M., Mitchell, D., Macpherson, F., Pearson, J., & Zeman, A. (2022). Proposal for a consistent definition of aphantasia and hyperphantasia: a response to lambert and sibley (2022) and simner and dance (2022). Cortex, 152, 74–76. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2022.04.003

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Article

3 Things I Learned From Having Multisensory Aphantasia That Changed My Understanding Of The World

My journey understanding the cognitive profiles of aphantasia and hyperphantasia started when I learned at age 30 that most of you have a superpower I don’t.

recentlyby Steven Levithan

Article

Switching The Focus From Visual Imagery

A case for studying mental imagery as a whole

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Article

Think of a Horse: Describing Aphantasia

How do you describe aphantasia? Founder of Aphantasia Network often gets asked this question. His answer? Think of a horse.

recentlyby Tom Ebeyer

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