Aphantasia is defined as the experience of lacking visual mental imagery. Most people can generate some mental image when asked to imagine a red apple with eyes closed, while choosing complete darkness suggests aphantasia. Research has debated whether aphantasia is a true absence of imagery or a different form of imagery impairment. If it were a complete lack, people with aphantasia would struggle with tasks that rely on mental imagery, such as remembering image details or imagining future interactions, and their brain activity during imagery tasks would differ sharply from that of people with vivid imagery. A newer perspective proposes “imagery blindsight,” where imagery may occur unconsciously, with neuroimaging and behavioral findings supporting this view.
"Aphantasia refers to the experience of lacking visual mental imagery. When people are asked to close their eyes and imagine a red apple, most people can conjure some mental image of a red apple, resembling one of the representations in the diagram below. If your mental image resembles option #1, it suggests you have highly vivid visual mental imagery, or even hyperphantasia. Options #2, #3, and #4 likely reflect the typical range of mental imagery vividness, from a fairly vivid representation to a vague, fuzzy representation that might just contain the outline of the imagined apple. However, if you chose option #5, indicating that you see nothing but darkness when you close your eyes, you might have aphantasia."
"Some have claimed that aphantasia is truly a lack of visual mental imagery. If that is the case, then people with aphantasia should find it challenging to accomplish certain cognitive tasks that are thought to be aided by mental imagery, for example, remembering details of a previously studied image or imagining specific aspects of a future interaction. Moreover, if people with aphantasia can't imagine a visual image, then their brain activity during imagery tasks should show stark differences from the brain activity of people who report vivid imagery."
"In a recent Letter in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Matthias Michel and colleagues propose a different view: that aphantasia may be better characterized as a type of “imagery blindsight” rather than a lack of imagery. Evidence from neuroimaging and behavioral studies supports this view."
Read at Psychology Today
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