Aphantasia

Aphantasia is a mysterious condition in which a person lacks the ability to form mental images. For the average person, mental images (also known as the mind’s eye) allow easy recollection of events and imagination of visual information, often in vibrant detail. The process of forming these mental images, while a complex brain function, occurs instinctively, leading many to take the ability for granted. People who lack the ability may have no means of conjuring mental images. They must learn to rely on other means of remembering visual information or making visual decisions. Most people with aphantasia have it from birth or an early age and only learn about the condition later on. Many are surprised to discover that most people are able to conjure mental images. Early studies recording aphantasia date back at least to 1880. However, the modern study of the phenomenon, along with the name aphantasia, began in the 2000s with English neurologist Adam Zeman and his study of a patient known as MX.

Background

Most people have the ability to conjure images in their minds, such as the face of an old teacher or the appearance of the street outside their window. This process is often known as mental imagery or the mind’s eye. Although it is usually taken for granted, mental imagery is an important and useful cognitive skill. It results from complex brain processes that activate neural networks including those involved in vision, memory, and decision-making. Working together, these networks allow most people to summon visual memories or construct imaginative images in their mind. These perceptions can be useful for recalling information, making choices, reflecting on the past, and many other mental tasks.

People who have this ability generally think little of it, even though it regularly impacts their lives, and assume that it is common to all humans. However, a small body of evidence has long suggested that, for some reason, some people do not have this ability. Likely the first known reference to this phenomenon dates back to 1880. That year, British scientist Francis Galton conducted a study of memory. He asked one hundred men to describe their breakfast table, including details about the strength, clarity, and vividness of their mental image. Galton discovered that twelve of the research subjects were unable to give much description, and some even seemed surprised or confused by the question or the reference to mental imagery.

Despite this curious result, the scientific world paid little attention to the matter. In 2009, American researcher Bill Faw conducted a test of some 2,500 subjects that showed that about 2 percent of them lacked the ability to form mental images. This finding also failed to excite much reaction. Only during the following year would the phenomenon, which would come to be known as aphantasia, reach wider public and scientific recognition.

Overview

The modern study of aphantasia mainly started with English neurologist Adam Zeman. In 2003, Zeman met a 65-year-old man later nicknamed “MX.” MX described a situation that struck Zeman as highly unusual. MX explained that, for most of his life, he had a vivid imagination and frequently conjured images in his mind of memories, loved ones, and work projects. After MX experienced brain damage from what was likely a stroke, he suddenly lost that ability. He felt as though his ability to formulate mental images had gone blind.

Zeman conducted a series of tests and determined that MX’s mental imaging capabilities had most likely been impaired. His test results were unusual, though, and suggested that he might have learned to compensate with other forms of memory or logic. A subsequent brain scan that studied the neural activity occurring during the tests proved that MX’s brain did not function like most brains. Different parts of the brain were activated when he attempted to answer questions or solve puzzles involving mental imagery.

In 2010, the year after Faw’s study, Zeman published his own findings on the MX case. His research struck a chord with many other scientists as well as regular people who had never thought much of the topic but realized that they, too, lacked the ability to form mental imagery. Since most of them had been born that way, they had never realized how much of their perceptive ability was missing, much like Galton’s subjects who did not even realize that mental imagery was a real ability. Zeman encountered others with the condition who said that they felt that references to mental imagery were figurative. MX was a special case in that he had, but had lost, his ability to form mental images.

Zeman published further study results in 2015, including case studies and interviews with people with the condition that shed new light on its mysterious nature. He also created the name aphantasia, based on Greek words meaning “without imagination.” The name became well-known, and many people embraced Zeman’s work as a means of understanding their own unique senses of perception. Hundreds of people participated in further studies conducted by Zeman, which gave him more information and a large enough sample size to estimate that about 2 percent of the population is likely affected by aphantasia.

Experiments conducted after Zeman published his study have provided additional information about the condition. For example, those with the condition are less likely to experience other types of imagery, such as imagining music. Aphantasia does not affect everyone the same way and can be divided into subtypes. Some individuals with the condition have a poor autobiographical memory or trouble recognizing faces. While in others, aphantasia appears to be linked to autism. Those with the condition appear to be slower than average at processing visual information and may have difficulty absorbing it. Aphantasia likely affects more people than Zeman estimated, about four percent of the population. It also seems to run in families.

Bibliography

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