Study of aphantasia overturns backward-vision model of imagination
Research on people who cannot visualize challenges the theory that mental imagery works like perception in reverse.
What to know
- A new review challenges the widely accepted "backward-seeing" theory of imagination, which holds that the mind's eye works like perception in reverse through the primary visual cortex.
- Clinical evidence from patients with destroyed primary visual cortex who retain mental imagery, combined with study of people with aphantasia, supports a network-based model where multiple brain regions must coordinate to produce visualization.
- The primary visual cortex may modulate imagery rather than generate it—acting more like a dimmer switch than a light source.
“Some people can't picture anything in their heads, and studying their brains is overturning a popular theory of how imagination works.”
Daily Neuron · Daily Neuron article
Derek Arnold Lead author, neuroscientistJoel Pearson Researcher (2019)Loren Bouyer Co-authorSamuel Schwarzkopf Co-authorBlake Saurels Co-author
How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articlesposts
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Network-based model explains aphantasia and preserved imagery in brain damage
The review proposes that visualization requires coordination across distributed brain regions from front to sides. The inability to visualize in aphantasia reflects failure of these regions to work as a team, while preserved imagery in primary visual cortex damage shows that region is not essential—it may act as a modulator rather than the image-generating source.
“ignore the adage that correlation does not establish causation…”
— Arnold and colleagues, Authors of review · source -
Also an Aphantasiac, the quote> “we experience these as an awareness of a set of spatial facts.”really resonates with me, as to how it feels inside my brain. I'm also really good at shape rotation and spatial reasoning despite not being able to literally picture the environment.my pet theory is that there are just different places in the stream of…
2 more of the top 3 · 66 posts in this stretch
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I can neither see, taste, nor smell things from memory (or from imagination)… really none of my sensory info is recalled directly, and until I learned about aphantasia, I assumed everyone was speaking figuratively when they said they could picture things (or smell/taste things from memory). So for me, I think it’s everything sensory. What I am…
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People with aphantasia probably overestimate how good it is.I have quite good visualisation ability (based on spacial reasoning tests and ability to visualise complex software systems in detail) but it's not like seeing something in real life; there is much less detail. Though on the plus side, I can manipulate the scene flexibly; I can zoom in…
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Clinical evidence shows visualization possible without primary visual cortex — The review cites cases of patients with severe primary visual cortex damage who retained the ability to visualize. One patient studied by Beatrice de Gelder, who was blind across his entire field of view due to bilateral primary visual cortex destruction, showed front and side brain regions activate when asked to imagine an angry person—activity patterns similar to sighted controls.
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Arnold et al. publish review challenging backward-seeing model — Derek Arnold, Loren Bouyer, Blake Saurels, and Samuel Schwarzkopf publish a review in Consciousness and Cognition arguing that mental imagery is produced by multiple brain regions working as a team, not by a single region. The authors—two of whom have aphantasia—use evidence from people who cannot visualize and brain-damaged patients to demonstrate flaws in Pearson's model.
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Joel Pearson describes backward-pipeline model of imagination — Pearson proposes an influential theory in which imagining something mirrors perception in reverse: planning areas initiate the request, memory regions supply details, and the image is painted back onto the primary visual cortex—the same region that processes real sight.
What people are saying 21 voices from 2 sites · best of 66 · verbatim
- Sep 20
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I don't have that ability but my first guess is your nervous system knows it's safe to disengage eye sight completely because it's learned behaviour necessary for sleep. That's going off the idea that aphantasia is a result of stress. Could be for us that we're constantly monitoring our environments for threats and that circuitry keeps our eyes on…
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Sorry, I was being unclear. I meant that the oft-cited "if you didn't see a color, you're not actually visualizing it" metric probably does *not* automatically equal aphantasia. I visualized everything *but* the color. I guess my brain just dropped color for efficiency? I think I'm pretty good at visualizing but now people are questioning…
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I have aphantasia and explain my imagination as conceptualization rather than visualization. Well yeah, don't forget that the root of 'imagination' is image . I knew a vocal coach who used the word 'audiate' to mean the sonic counterpart to imagination. Like you can "imagine" a tune in your head but it's not an image. So are all forms of "conjured…
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I also can't remember faces in my head. I recognize people ok, but can't bring up a mental image at all. Those police sketches people make have always seemed like black magic to me. Occasionally I can remember what someone looks like by visualizing an actual picture of them but if I try to focus on their face it slides away from me like nailing…
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To be fair, even for little with visual memory, closing your eyes could make it harder to visualise, not easier. But yes, this sounds about right. It's a spectrum, not just yes/no thing, and the fact that you can think of references at all implies that your aren't at 100%, but it does sound pretty close.
- Sep 19
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You're coping hard bro. Some people are just mentally superior to the the nth degree. I mean sure she must've studied it extensively, but it's not like if an average person studies it hard enough they can eventually mentally map a rubiks cube in 3d with all the colours and you can rotate them as if you were doing it in real time... that's just not…
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For me it's very much like sitting in a movie theater watching a film if I'm playing out scenarios in my head, I'm a visual designer by trade, and if I have to design a character for instance, id close my eyes or look off into the distance and imagine the character standing in front of me, like a real person and id irritate the design like their…
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Yeah, this really isn’t that hard if you solved a lot of Rubix cubes… It’s like saying you can remember where the chess pieces are on a board and can play it in your head, or that you can drive down a road in your mind that you’re really familiar with.
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Yes, this is exactly how I describe it. I think of it like how Neo gets to a point in the Matrix where he no longer needs to see to understand. My brain has all the information it would get from seeing a mental image without actually generating anything visual. For example, when reading Harry Potter, I didn’t generate a literal image in my mind of…
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another question, you cant visualize a red ball, but can you visualize a red ball moving? some people with aphantasia ive met, have had success visualizing things that move the movement activates something in them they didnt know they had
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I used to properly see thing with my imagination as a kid in a very literal sense, and now as an adult I sometimes get there when I’m drifting off and half asleep. I can notice my thoughts in real time turning into fully fledged experiences. But everyone that remembers a dream can understand what it’s like to “see” with only their minds, it’s just…
- Sep 15
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Mnemotechnics is an art of memorizing by linking visual images. A book I have gives these criteria for a proper image:you can roughly draw the object from memoryyou can name its main partsyou can name its main colorsyou can describe its spatial orientationThe image shouldn't be as clear as a hallucination, and it should be a memory of a specific…
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My experience is similar.I have dreamed visually, sometimes vividly, but not so common these days that I awake remembering a dream. Lucid dreams rarely - and almost exclusively as a flying dream, like at some point I just realise I can fly and then I'm in control for a while until I wake up. Fun when it happens but I have no idea or technique for…
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Question for visualizers: is imagery held steady in your dream, or does it constantly shift and morph?I’m aphantasic and like I’ve seen many people report here, I can kinda almost conjure up images but can’t hold them steady even for a microsecond. It immediately disintegrates and can’t be brought back.In my dreams the imagery always shifts, but…
- Sep 14
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My lucid dreaming has always been when I'm in danger, like this description of a Sadako dreamhttps://medium.com/luminasticity/beating-up-sadako-82c5fb3f0...So I've never been able to trigger a Lucid dream in any particular method but often when I am being attacked it's like the adrenaline makes me think wait a second this is a dream. Some times if…
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I'm also aphantasic and dream normally, and I once got really into lucid dreaming for a ~semester in college.My best successes would occur after drinking a cup of coffee and immediately taking a nap before a study session.It was great, I "learned how to fly" and could "morph" my dream into whichever direction I wanted.One thing stuck out though…
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I'm also aphantasic and dream normally.I have some intermittent ability to lucid dream. I have noticed that if I am acting as a "passenger", the imagery is vivid and I will be able to recall everything. Sometimes something in the dream will prompt me to think. It might be entering a phone number, or reading text. As soon as I engage the process of…
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I'm pretty sure I have this, for all senses, and I only just learned there's things other than iñner eye (which I only learned of a few months).If people have an "inner taste" or "inner hearing", why bother eating a sweet or playing music?> Asked what sits beside the television, they answer without hesitation, but “we experience these as an…
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It has been a lot of fun talking to those who are Aphantasiac. I am the complete opposite to the point where I think almost exclusively in imagery and when talking to folks I translate visuals to words on the fly. For a long time when people said that they saw black when they closed their eyes I assumed that meant that they choose to "see black"…
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I thought that I'll never be able to tell what non-aphantasia people see and how they perceive things. I see full blackness with some noise, but I can't visualize a thing.This was until I tried some magic mushrooms (psilocybin as main ingredient) and I was shocked that with my eyes closed I was able to actually see things, mental imagery, objects…
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For anyone who doesn’t believe this is real, I recommend reading Thinking In Pictures. It’s a great book.Explains 3 types of thinking that people use in their day-to-day: Linear verbal, schematic conceptual, and photo realistic.It’s all a spectrum so you likely use all 3 to an extent.Most people think linearly and sort of describe things in their…