Phantasia

Aristotle coined phantasia in On the Soul to describe a capacity between perception and thought, a kind of sixth sense. It's often translated as imagination.

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Research

2026

Exploring the experiences of autistic and non-autistic aphantasics: A qualitative study

Zhong and colleagues · Neuropsychologia

Researchers analyzed free-text comments from 25 autistic and 25 non-autistic adults with aphantasia, matched for age, who answered one open-ended question at the end of an online survey. Comments fell under imagery, thinking, and emotions and social life; more non-autistic people mentioned imagery in other senses, mostly describing it as intact, while more autistic people described themselves as thinking in words. Many described memories as known facts rather than relived scenes, and some described knowing an emotion without feeling it. The group differences rest on small numbers and a single question.

2026

What If Your Mind's Eye Can't See?

Stewart and Brick Taft · Journal of the International Society for Teacher Education

In one school, 13.8% of 94 fourth graders scored in the aphantasia range and 27.7% in the hyperphantasia range, both above adult estimates. The authors suggest teachers offer strategies that do not rely on picturing.

2026

Age differences in visual and multisensory imagery: Notes on distributions of aphantasia and hyperphantasia in individuals aged 20s–70s

Takahashi, Omura and Sugimura · Neuropsychologia

Older adults reported more vivid visual and multisensory imagery, while aphantasia was more prevalent in younger groups. This suggests that age should be considered when identifying aphantasia and setting diagnostic thresholds.

2026

Reimagining the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire as a single item screener for aphantasia

Monzel and colleagues · Consciousness and Cognition

VVIQ items showed high redundancy for identifying aphantasia, with inter-item correlations ranging from .79 to .90. A single screening question about visualizing a familiar place achieved high specificity (98.8%) and sensitivity (97.5%) against the strictest definition of core aphantasia (VVIQ = 16), suggesting the full 16-item questionnaire is unnecessary for screening purposes.

All 60 papers

Phantasia

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Phantasia

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‘That’s Not How I Pictured It’ – Why Book‑to‑Film Adaptations So Often Disappoint

Exporting the Invisible: How an Aphantasic Artist Creates Animated Musical Scores

Alexander of Aphrodisias: The Ancient Philosopher Who Mapped Mental Imagery

Aphantasia and ADHD: You Asked, We Dug Into the Research

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Disordered, Deficient, Dehumanized: How the Language of Aphantasia Research Shapes What We Think About It

Pictures Without Mental Pictures: How Aphantasia Is Rewriting a 50-Year-Old Theory of Memory

Rethinking Hyperphantasia: Why "Extreme" Mental Imagery Might Be Two Different Phenomena

Research

Exploring the experiences of autistic and non-autistic aphantasics: A qualitative study

What If Your Mind's Eye Can't See?

Age differences in visual and multisensory imagery: Notes on distributions of aphantasia and hyperphantasia in individuals aged 20s–70s

Reimagining the vividness of visual imagery questionnaire as a single item screener for aphantasia

From the community

VVIQ - Visual Imagery Questionnaire - Suggestion

Where Does “Immersive but Non-Visual” Imagery Fit?

Aphantasia and Neurodiversity Deep Dive

What is normal imagination??

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Aphantasia Distress Questionnaire