The Latest Research on Aphantasia and the Mind’s Eye

Aphantasia is the absence, or near absence, of a mind’s eye: asked to picture a beach, some people see nothing at all.¹ The newest research suggests it is a real difference in how the brain works, showing up in measurable body and brain responses and not just in how people describe their thoughts. It also turns out to be about more than sight, often reaching hearing, smell, taste and touch, and it shapes memory and emotion in ways that are only now being mapped.² People have described the experience for over 100 years, though the word itself was only coined in 2015.³

How Scientists Showed Aphantasia Is Real

Proving it was hard because mental imagery is private. For years researchers could only take people’s word for it, and skeptics argued that people with aphantasia might have images but describe them differently. Physical measures sidestep that problem, because people can’t fake them.

The pupils are one such measure. When most people imagine a bright scene, their pupils shrink slightly, as if seeing real light. People with aphantasia show no such change when imagining, even though their pupils react normally to actual light.⁴ In the test, people look at a screen while imagining a bright or dark shape, and a camera records their pupil size. Pupil size is run by automatic reflexes, so claiming to see a bright image can’t make your pupils shrink. Their pupils still widen as the imagining task gets harder, which shows they are trying and not refusing to imagine.⁵

A second test looks at what people see next. Two different images are shown, one to each eye, so the person sees only one at a time while the two compete. Before the pair appears, the person imagines one of them. In most people, that imagining nudges which image wins first, as if a faint real image had been shown.⁶ People with aphantasia show almost none of this effect.⁷ A follow-up with more than fifty people with aphantasia confirmed it.⁸ Even hidden, unconscious versions of the test show no effect, which suggests no images are formed at all, as opposed to images that are there but out of reach.⁹

Brain wiring differs too, at the extremes. Hyperphantasia means imagery so vivid it can feel almost like seeing. Brain scans at rest show stronger links between the front of the brain and visual areas in people with it than in people with aphantasia.¹⁰ Comparing the two extremes helps show which brain links support imagery, and since most people fall somewhere in between, imagery is best seen as a spectrum. How easily the visual brain fires up, measured with magnetic pulses, also tracks how strong a person’s imagery is.¹¹

How Common Aphantasia Is

The estimates depend on how you count. Visual-only estimates have put aphantasia at about 3 to 4 in 100 people.¹² When a strict questionnaire cutoff is used, the figure drops to about 1.5 in 100.¹³ That is because some people who call themselves aphantasic still score as having some imagery.¹⁴ People with faint images may identify with the label after reading about it, while the strict score catches only those with essentially none. Neither is wrong; they capture slightly different groups. Combining a questionnaire with how people describe themselves gives a more consistent picture.¹⁵

The range is roughly 1.5 to 4 in 100 for visual imagery, depending on the definition. Many people with aphantasia never realize that others really see images, assuming “picture it” is a figure of speech.

Counting every sense raises the number. Checking eight senses, about 14 in 100 people lacked imagery in at least one.¹⁶ Smell and taste imagery were most often missing, and imagined sound least often.¹⁷

How to Tell If You Have Aphantasia

The most widely used tool is the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, or VVIQ, which asks you to rate how clearly you can picture scenes such as a sunrise or a familiar face.¹⁸ Researchers argue this questionnaire alone is enough to identify aphantasia, even if it misses finer details like sharpness or color.¹⁹ There is no blood test or scan for it in a doctor’s office.

You can try a version of the check yourself. Picture a friend’s face, a shop front, or a sunrise, and rate how clear it is. Consistently rating it “no image at all” points toward aphantasia. Free online versions of the vividness questionnaire exist, though they are not a diagnosis. It’s also worth testing other senses: can you imagine a song, or the smell of coffee?

Aphantasia is treated as a variation in how minds work, not an illness, and many people live full lives without knowing they have it. A sudden loss of imagery after illness or injury is different and worth a doctor’s visit.

When Imagery Is Missing in More Than One Sense

People with aphantasia tend to fall into two main groups: those missing only visual imagery, and those missing imagery across several senses.²⁰ About 26 in 100 people with aphantasia lack imagery in all senses, making it the second most common type.²¹ This type can extend to imagined movement, body feelings and emotions.²² Meanwhile, about 6 in 10 people with aphantasia have reduced imagery across several senses.²³

Day to day, the difference is easy to notice. Someone with the visual-only type can replay a song in their head but can’t see a face. Someone with imagery missing in every sense has no inner music, no imagined smell, and no imagined touch. Many still have an inner voice and think in words or facts.

To check your own senses, try imagining a dog barking, the taste of a lemon, sandpaper under your fingers, and the feel of running. Note which come easily and which bring nothing. That pattern helps show which type fits you.

Born With It or Acquired After Brain Injury

Aphantasia can be lifelong from birth or acquired later.²⁴ It is more common in people whose relatives also lack imagery.²⁵ One study, though, found no clear genetic link.²⁶ And in one pair of identical twins, the brain differences suggested genes don’t fully decide it.²⁷ Relatives share genes but also households and habits, so a family pattern alone can’t prove inheritance, and no single gene has been established. A relative with aphantasia makes it more likely you have it too, but doesn’t guarantee it. If you have it, ask your parents or siblings what they see; families often find surprising differences when they compare.

Acquired aphantasia has clearer causes. An architect lost his ability to picture things after a stroke at the back of the brain.²⁸ His damage hit small areas on the underside of the brain that handle visual detail, unlike other stroke patients who kept their imagery.²⁹ Across many cases of acquired aphantasia, injuries sat in different places, but every one was connected to the same region, sometimes called the brain’s imagery hub.³⁰

People who lose imagery notice a clear before and after, which is often distressing. People born with it usually discover it in adulthood by comparing notes with others.

Effects on Memory and Thinking

Personal memories feel thinner. People with aphantasia recall fewer details when describing past events and imagining future ones.³¹ The gap is biggest for imagining new future events, mostly because visual details are missing.³² Imagining the future means assembling a new scene from pieces of memory, and without visual imagery there is no picture to build from, so the result tends to be a bare description.

“Less detailed” refers mostly to sensory, picture-like details such as sights, people and surroundings. The basic outline often remains: someone with aphantasia can usually say who was there, where it happened, and what they did. They describe almost no ability to relive the sights of past events.³³ Memory for facts is also somewhat lower, though by less.³⁴ You may know a holiday happened without being able to replay it, with the memory stored as facts or a story. Many people lean on photos, diaries and notes.

Spatial thinking can still work. One man who lost his imagery could still mentally rotate shapes as accurately as others.³⁵

Nor does aphantasia mean lower intelligence. Many people with it work in visual fields, even architecture, using other strategies.

Dreams, Emotions and Upsetting Memories

Many people with aphantasia still dream in pictures.³⁶ In interviews, people born with it all described dream images and sudden images during intense emotion.³⁷ Unbidden images can appear even when deliberate ones can’t. Aphantasia describes the loss of voluntary imagery. Dreams come from the sleeping brain without any effort, so they work differently from picturing something on request while awake. Some people do report dreams that are less vivid or less frequent, so the experience varies.

Reactions to frightening stories are calmer. Reading them normally raises sweating on the skin, a sign of fear.³⁸ In people with aphantasia, this response stayed flat.³⁹ Mental pictures seem to amplify emotion. Unwanted memories also come less often. After watching a disturbing film, people with aphantasia had fewer flashback memories.⁴⁰ They still had some, mostly as words or thoughts instead of pictures.⁴¹

For trauma and anxiety, this suggests imagery may fuel some anxiety and flashbacks. People with aphantasia may experience distress differently, not necessarily less. Therapies that rely on picturing scenes may need adapting, so it’s worth telling your therapist.

Linked Traits Like Face Blindness

Lifelong trouble recognizing faces affects about 2 to 3 in 100 people overall but 14 to 36 in 100 people with aphantasia.⁴² The link runs both ways: among people with face blindness, about 16 in 100 have aphantasia versus 4 in 100 generally.⁴³ Aphantasia has also been linked with autism and with coordination difficulties.⁴⁴⁴⁵

Face blindness is trouble recognizing faces, even familiar ones, and it is separate from being unable to picture a face in your mind. A person can have one without the other, and most people with aphantasia recognize faces normally. The traits overlap more than chance would predict, but most people with either do not have both.

Signs of face recognition trouble include struggling to recognize familiar people out of context and relying on voice, hair or clothing. Online face tests can give an indication, and a specialist can confirm.

Can Aphantasia Be Trained or Changed

Research is at an early stage. A registered trial is testing whether gentle magnetic or electrical stimulation of the movement area of the brain can improve imagined movement in people with aphantasia.⁴⁶ It targets picturing yourself performing an action, not seeing mental pictures, and even success wouldn’t show visual imagery could be restored, since the senses may not respond the same way. The strength of imagery does track how easily the visual brain fires, hinting at a possible target.⁴⁷ But no method is yet shown to create a mind’s eye.

Be wary of apps or courses promising to unlock visualization. Practical tools like notes, words and spatial strategies help more today.

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