Many People Don’t See Mental Images. The Reason Offers Clues To Consciousness

Think astir your meal this morning. Can you ideate nan shape connected your java mug? The sheen of nan jam connected your half-eaten toast?

Most of america tin telephone up specified pictures successful our minds. We tin visualize nan past and summon images of nan future. But for an estimated 4% of people, this intelligence imagery is anemic aliases absent. When researchers inquire them to ideate thing familiar, they mightiness person a conception of what it is, and words and associations mightiness travel to mind, but they picture their mind’s eye arsenic acheronian aliases moreover blank.

Systems neuroscientist Mac Shine astatine nan University of Sydney, Australia, first realized that his intelligence acquisition differed successful this measurement successful 2013. He and his colleagues were trying to understand really definite types of mirage travel about, and were discussing nan vividness of intelligence imagery.

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“When I adjacent my eyes, there’s perfectly thing there,” Shine recalls telling his colleagues. They instantly asked him what he was talking about. “Whoa. What’s going on?” Shine thought. Neither he nor his colleagues had realized really overmuch variety location is successful nan experiences group person erstwhile they adjacent their eyes.

This infinitesimal of revelation is communal to galore group who don’t shape intelligence images. They study that they mightiness ne'er person thought astir this facet of their soul life if not for a chance conversation, a high-school psychology people aliases an article they stumbled across.

[Visit nan communicative from Nature to play nan quiz 'How do you imagine?']

Although scientists person known for much than a period that intelligence imagery varies betwixt people, nan taxable received a surge of attraction when, a decade ago, an influential insubstantial coined nan word aphantasia to picture nan acquisition of group pinch nary intelligence imagery.

Since then, aphantasia has changeable into nan canon of different phenomena that are invaluable for studying really nan mind works. Like synaesthesia (in which people’s senses are connected successful exceptional ways, truthful they perceive colours, for example) and prosopagnosia (also known arsenic look blindness), aphantasia has opened galore caller investigation avenues.

Much of nan early activity sought to picture nan trait and measure really it affected behaviour. But complete nan past 5 years, studies person begun to research what’s different astir nan brains of group pinch this shape of soul life. The findings person led to a flurry of discussions astir really intelligence imagery forms, what it is bully for and what it mightiness uncover astir nan puzzle of consciousness: researchers thin to specify intelligence imagery arsenic a conscious experience, and immoderate are now excited to study aphantasia arsenic a measurement to probe imagery’s perchance unconscious forms.

Cognitive neuroscientist Giulia Cabbai astatine University College London is among nan researchers willing successful these questions. She was shocked to study astir aphantasia successful 2015. Her ain intensely vivid intelligence imagery is astatine nan different utmost of nan distribution — she has hyperphantasia. The truth that location are group pinch a complete deficiency of intelligence imagery brings caller ways to study this soul experience, she says. “How does it impact our emotion, our perception, our attention, our memory? We tin understand this pinch aphantasia.”

Genuine variation

Neurologist Adam Zeman astatine nan University of Edinburgh and nan University of Exeter, UK, began studying aphantasia successful 2003. He met a man who, aft a minimally invasive bosom procedure, complained that though his ocular cognition remained normal, his mind’s oculus had vanished. Scans of his encephalon showed nan expected activity erstwhile he looked astatine images of celebrated faces, but notable differences from power individuals erstwhile he tried to ideate nan faces. After Zeman’s squad published a lawsuit study successful 2010, Zeman heard from much than 20 group who said that they, too, lacked intelligence imagery, but they had lacked it their full lives. Zeman’s squad surveyed those people, reporting nan findings and introducing nan word aphantasia (tacking an ‘a’ to nan beforehand of ‘phantasia’, Aristotle’s word for nan mind’s eye) successful 2015 successful Cortex.

Zeman says that he was inundated pinch messages aft an article astir nan insubstantial appeared successful The New York Times. Since that article, immoderate 20,000 group person contacted him pinch their ain stories of intelligence imagery.

“I didn’t expect it to detonate rather arsenic it has,” says Zeman. “If you are studying what you respect arsenic a uncommon neuropsychological arena and you get half a twelve group successful touch, that’s large time.”

The 2015 insubstantial and consequent investigation has revealed really overmuch aphantasia tin vary. For instance, group pinch aphantasia often, but not always, deficiency nan expertise to ideate successful sensory modalities too imagination — having nary ‘mind’s ear,’ for example. Some group pinch aphantasia study dreaming successful pictures, but others don’t.

Researchers person besides recovered that aphantasia seems to person a familial component, pinch nan likelihood of having aphantasia expanding tenfold if you person a related who has a anemic aliases absent mind’s eye. And aphantasia mightiness beryllium much communal successful group successful technological and method professions than successful group pinch careers successful nan arts.

Zeman and others opportunity that aphantasia doesn’t look to make overmuch quality to behaviour, and though it mightiness influence creativity, it by nary intends precludes it. Instead of calling it a upset aliases condition, Zeman describes it arsenic an “intriguing variation” — 1 utmost connected a distribution of mental-imagery capabilities.

Getting a measure

Much of nan activity characterizing intelligence imagery relies connected asking participants to picture their experience. But specified methods are subjective, and they can’t abstracted existent variations successful acquisition from variations successful really group picture aliases construe that experience. So immoderate researchers person been attempting to travel up pinch different techniques.

Neuroscientist Joel Pearson astatine nan University of New South Wales successful Sydney and his colleagues developed an attack that takes advantage of a perceptual arena called binocular rivalry. When a different ocular is presented to each oculus simultaneously, for example, a shape of greenish lines to nan near oculus and reddish lines to nan right, a person’s cognition toggles betwixt nan 2 alternatively of blending them. Nearly 2 decades ago, Pearson decided to spot what happened if he imagined 1 of nan visuals successful his mind’s oculus — successful this case, only nan greenish lines aliases only nan reddish — earlier nan trial began. It turned retired that whichever shape he imagined was what he saw during nan test.

The researchers developed this uncovering into a method to measurement nan spot of intelligence imagery. In a personification pinch emblematic intelligence imagery, imagining nan reddish shape results successful nan personification being much apt to spot that reddish shape during binocular rivalry. But a personification pinch nary ocular imagery will not show this aforesaid bias. Pearson has been studying intelligence imagery ever since processing this method.

There are different techniques, too. A person’s affectional guidance to scary stories, measured by really overmuch they sweat, tin beryllium a bully proxy for really vividly they ideate what’s happening successful nan story. And erstwhile researchers inquire personification to ideate a agleam light, nan grade to which their pupils constrict correlates pinch nan vividness of their intelligence imagery.

A decade of activity has near researchers convinced that aphantasia is simply a existent phenomenon, but galore are puzzled by really small it seems to impact behaviour. Behavioural tasks that are thought to dangle connected intelligence imagery don’t look to beryllium a problem for group pinch aphantasia. They execute comparatively good connected modular representation assessments and they look to beryllium capable to rotate objects successful their mind, to find whether an entity successful 1 image matches different presented from a different angle.

“I play sports. I tin tie diagrams of nan encephalon — immoderate you want. But for me, erstwhile I effort to ideate a purple dinosaur juggling connected apical of a bouncy ball, thing shows up,” says Shine. He says nan large enigma is really nan encephalon tin usability typically successful each these ways but astatine nan aforesaid clip deficiency this 1 circumstantial ability.

Into nan brain

When scientists started looking for nan encephalon signatures of aphantasia, they expected to spot differences successful nan ocular cortex. This is nan area that receives and processes ocular accusation during perception, and it’s known to beryllium progressive erstwhile a personification pictures thing successful their mind. Most researchers person thought of intelligence imagery arsenic imagination successful reverse, pinch higher-level encephalon areas sending signals to little ocular areas to make a conscious image.

But studies person suggested that erstwhile group pinch aphantasia effort to ideate something, they activate nan ocular cortex successful ways akin to that seen successful power individuals. Perhaps, immoderate researchers say, that encephalon area is forming ocular representations successful group pinch aphantasia, but nan conscious mind can’t entree what is there.

During her PhD, Cabbai decided to study nan narration betwixt activity successful nan ocular cortex and a person’s acquisition of imagery. She wanted to find retired whether what she and others telephone ‘sensory representations’ successful nan ocular cortex must ever travel pinch nan acquisition of imagery. But she besides wondered whether aphantasia was a problem pinch voluntarily conjuring up images connected demand, truthful she and her colleagues took an attack that didn’t require participants to do that.

The squad scanned nan brains of group pinch and without aphantasia while they listened to sounds that should spontaneously trigger a sensory practice of immoderate made nan sound. Barking, for example, should trigger representations of a canine successful nan superior ocular cortex. Then, nan researchers fed nan encephalon activity into a machine-learning algorithm to spot whether it could foretell nan sound content.

Hearing a canine bark did make activity that represented a canine successful some emblematic imagers and group pinch aphantasia. But, contempt nan beingness of that activity, group pinch aphantasia reported seeing thing successful their mind’s eye. The uncovering suggests that these sensory representations — thought to underlie intelligence imagery — tin stay unconscious and truthful are not capable to trigger imagery connected their own.

The squad besides probed voluntary imagery, asking participants to visualize what was making nan sound. In this case, nan algorithm couldn’t decode what was being represented successful nan ocular cortex successful group pinch aphantasia. Cabbai calls nan findings “puzzling”, and says that aphantasia mightiness beryllium a twofold problem involving not experiencing imagery consciously and not being capable to voluntarily make it.

Work from Pearson’s group suggests that group pinch aphantasia do person representations successful nan superior ocular cortex erstwhile they effort to imagine, but that these disagree successful subtle ways from those of group who acquisition emblematic imagery. In a study published past year, his squad scanned nan brains of group pinch aphantasia and emblematic imagers while they looked astatine stripe patterns connected a screen, and erstwhile they attempted to ideate those aforesaid patterns.

The findings pointed to differences successful nan representations that shape successful nan superior ocular cortex of group pinch aphantasia during cognition and attempted imagery. Although nan representations are location during attempted imagery, Pearson says, they are someway anemic aliases changed successful immoderate way. “Is it functionally different, warped, blurry, successful a different portion of nan brain?” he asks. “We don’t person nan reply to that yet.”

Brain studies besides hint that altered connectivity betwixt encephalon regions mightiness beryllium astatine nan bosom of aphantasia; this fits pinch leading theories of consciousness that attraction connected connectivity. In aphantasia, it’s imaginable that ocular areas and higher-level encephalon areas are not communicating successful a measurement that allows for nan conscious acquisition of nan mind’s eye, researchers say.

In 1 study, cognitive neuroscientist Jianghao Liu astatine nan Paris Brain Institute and his colleagues utilized a high-resolution shape of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to observe nan brains of group pinch aphantasia while they attempted to ideate animals, faces aliases nan quality of French words, for example. The study recovered reduced connectivity betwixt an area progressive successful ocular processing, called nan fusiform imagery node, and frontal regions that are progressive during imagery tasks. From this and different work, Liu proposes that conscious imagery requires nan integration and amplification of “subliminal ocular representations” that are coming successful nan ocular cortex.

There mightiness beryllium various types aliases patterns of encephalon activity that consequence successful an absence of intelligence imagery. This would fresh pinch self-reports suggesting that aphantasia is knowledgeable successful various ways and tin return different forms.

People thin to presume that their soul lives are identical, says Shine, but “the measurement that nan world shows up to group has a massive, monolithic variety to it.” He thinks that accounting for this variety is cardinal to knowing really quality brains work.

Not a deficit

Although aphantasia doesn’t look to person a large effect connected really group get connected successful life, studies show that it does trim nan richness of autobiographical memories. People pinch aphantasia callback less vivid specifications from their pasts. There’s a thinness to their recollections, says Zeman, truthful they can’t afloat relive their memories.

Wilma Bainbridge, a cognitive neuroscientist astatine nan University of Chicago, Illinois, says it is difficult to disentangle intelligence imagery from memory. Even creating a intelligence image of thing successful nan early astir apt requires you to trust connected your memory.

Her laboratory has been investigating nan contented of memories — what they look for illustration successful someone’s mind — and group pinch aphantasia supply an absorbing trial case. In a study reported successful 2021, Bainbridge and her colleagues asked group pinch and without aphantasia to study a segment and past tie it from memory. They wanted to seizure what mightiness beryllium mislaid erstwhile group picture their memories successful words. “Aphantasic individuals drew little — less objects, less details. They spent little clip drafting nan objects and utilized little colour,” Bainbridge says.

But by immoderate measures, their responses were indistinguishable from those of group pinch emblematic imagery. They identified wherever objects were successful abstraction conscionable arsenic well. And they were conscionable arsenic bully astatine recognizing nan images they had seen erstwhile asked astir them later on. They utilized much matter successful their drawings, suggesting that they were scaffolding their memories pinch language.

This study and others reenforce nan thought that location are galore components of representation — object, spatial, semantic — a model that could beryllium important for knowing and treating diseases specified arsenic Alzheimer’s, successful which respective forms of representation look to diminution astatine different rates.

Xiaonan Li, a master’s student successful Bainbridge’s lab, recovered retired she has anemic ocular imagery during a high-school psychology people successful astir 2017. “I don’t person a deficit. To me, it is fine,” she says. But it has near her funny astir nan subject. She is willing successful what techniques group pinch aphantasia mightiness usage to compensate. She wonders how, for example, they tin admit faces without picturing them. And she wonders whether it is imaginable for a personification to train their mental-imagery ability.

At nan different extreme, galore researchers are now willing successful really vivid intelligence imagery mightiness subordinate to hallucinations successful schizophrenia aliases Parkinson’s disease, aliases to nan ocular intrusions coming successful post-traumatic accent disorder. It has been projected that aphantasia mightiness beryllium protective successful these and different mental-health contexts, Zeman says.

Shine says that seemingly antagonistic aspects of aphantasia tin beryllium viewed arsenic positives. For example, he says he doesn’t get arsenic lonely erstwhile he travels because he doesn’t person an image of family members’ faces successful his mind’s eye. “I don’t beryllium location and dwell connected it,” he says. “I’m capable to put it retired of my mind.”

This article is reproduced pinch support and was first published connected February 3, 2026.