Definition of aphantasia: what is it?
How do people with aphantasy think?
A term coined in 2015 by Adam Zeman, professor of cognitive and behavioral neurology at the University of Exeter in England and honorary researcher at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, aphantasia characterizes people who are unable to generate a mental image, whether during a simple discussion or when recalling a memory.
Is it an illness or a disability?
Specialists describe the phenomenon of aphantasia as being left-handed, for example. Indeed, aphantasia is not a pathology or a disability, it is simply a particular brain function. Paradoxically, these people are capable of dreaming. “This is possible, because the processes involved in generating images while awake and generating dream imagery are very different.” explains Adam Zeman.
How many people are affected by aphantasia: what percentage?
Around 1% of the world’s population is affected by this particularity.
The term was therefore invented by Professor Zeman after meeting a patient who developed this particularity after heart surgery. “We then studied his brain scans and found that when he looked at things, his brain responded normally, but when he tried to imagine them, there was no activation of the visual regions of the brain..
Questioned by our colleagues at CNN, Mary Wathen also reports having never had the experience of visualizing a memory. She is unable to see herself as a child, opening her Christmas presents, to remember her husband’s marriage proposal or even the birth of her children.
What causes visual aphantasia?
Autism
Since 2015, scientists have further studied aphantasia, in order to better understand its mechanisms. According to Adam Zeman, aphantasia can be associated with memory problems, autism or “face blindness”, the disorder which prevents people from recognizing most faces, even those of loved ones.
A brain injury
“People with aphantasia are also more likely to work in science, mathematics or information technology” indicates the researcher. “And although aphantasia can be caused by brain injury, brain damage, or certain psychiatric illnesses, some people, like Mary Wathen and her mother, inherited it at birth. We’ve found that if you have aphantasia, your first-degree relatives are about 10 times more likely to have it as well.“. Observation which suggests that a genetic origin would be responsible for this particularity.
Can people with aphantasy dream?
Much remains to be discovered about aphantasia. It seems that people with aphantasy can dream. However, visual images are blurry or even absent. The contents are focused on sounds or dialogues. Dreams are seen more as stories that would be told to them.
How do you know if you have aphantasia?
A human being suffering from aphantasia is unable to visualize a scene, an image, an idea, even when it makes a significant effort. When the person reads a book or a written document, no “inner” image emerges. Memories are not associated with images. The person has difficulty visualizing the future.
How to diagnose visual aphantasia?
As aphantasia is not considered a pathology, but a natural neurological variation, there is no formal medical diagnosis requiring clinical management. Thus, the diagnosis of visual aphantasia is mainly based on self-assessment and standardized questionnaires:
VVIQ test
The reference test is the VVIQ (Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire)a 16-item questionnaire where the person must rate the clarity of their mental images on a scale of 1 to 5. A score of 32 or less generally suggests aphantasia, although there is no definitive medical consensus yet.
Apple test
Of the simple tests can also be done: closing your eyes and trying to visualize a red apple or the face of a loved one allows you to assess your mental imagery capacity.
Other methods
More recently, researchers have developed objective methods based on the analysis of pupillary reactions, because the pupils of people with aphantasy do not contract during mental visualization exercises, unlike neurotypical people.
Treatment: can aphantasia be cured?
There is currently no treatment for this disorder, as it is not a disease. It’s a neurological variation. The research is otherwise limited.
What is auditory aphantasia?
Auditory aphantasia, also called anauralia or anendophasiarefers to the inability to generate sounds mentally. Affected people cannot imagine hearing a voice in their head, mentally reproducing a melody or conjuring up the sound of an ambulance siren. Unlike people who have a constant inner voice, auditory aphantasics live in mental silence and think purely abstractly, without sound support.
This form of aphantasia is often associated with visual aphantasia, with research showing that around 82% of people with visual aphantasia also have difficulty with auditory imagery. Although this absence of inner dialogue may seem limiting, it sometimes allows for more condensed and rapid thinking, reflection not passing through words but directly through concepts.
What is hyperphantasia?
Unlike people with aphantasy, there are those who have “too many” mental images. These people are called hyperphantasic. Scientists estimate that this affects 3% of the world’s population.
In hyperphantasia, on the contrary, people are able to relive their memories in detail. The letters and numbers have particular colors and the people are seen surrounded by an aura, more or less vivid. “These people often work in the artistic field and may experience heightened emotions.” adds Adam Zeman. Brain analyzes have also shown that people suffering from hyperphantasia have “fairly strong links between the front of the brain and the sensory centers located at the back” further indicates the neurologist. “Whereas in cases of aphantasia, these connections are much weaker“.
But experiencing memories intensely is not without risks. The specialist fears that with hyperphantasia, patients will be “more prone to
post-traumatic stress disorder “, because “they sometimes confuse what they imagined with what really happened or constantly visualize the horrible consequences of an event, even though they did not happen“.