Aphantasia, dysikonesia, anauralia: call for a single term for the lack of mental imagery–Commentary on Dance et al. (2021) and Hinwar and Lambert (2021)

Monzel, Merlin; Mitchell, David; Macpherson, Fiona; Pearson, Joel; Zeman, Adam

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.002

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…We found that some participants showed an absence of all sensory imagery, and others lacked visual imagery only, being able to form other types of sensory imagery. The former and the latter participants may be interpreted as having multi-sensory and visual aphantasia 23 , respectively. We used the QMI in addition to the visual imagery criteria for VVIQ and self-identi cation, and we were able to observe not only visual aphantasia but also multi-sensory aphantasia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of aphantasia revealed by multiple assessments of the capability for multi-sensory imagery

Takahashi

Saito

Omura

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Aphantasia is a characteristic in which people with normal perception have difficulty constructing their imagination. Most previous studies have used the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), with some using self-identification of the absence of visual imagery, but there is a discrepancy between the proportions of aphantasia in the population calculated by these two criteria. It is unclear why this difference exists and how many people actually cannot form imagery. Moreover, because visual imagery is mainly focused upon, other types of aphantasia, relating to multi-sensory imagery, have not been fully investigated. We conducted an online sampling with a large number of participants (N = 2,885) to compare the proportions of aphantasia calculated by these two visual criteria, obtaining data from the same participants, and investigate the cognitive profile of multi-sensory imagery. The participants completed the VVIQ and Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery (QMI) and self-identified an absence of visual imagery. The proportions were 3.67% under the VVIQ criteria (VVIQ ≤ 32) and 12.24% under the self-identification of the absence of visual imagery criteria, roughly replicating the proportions of previous reports. Combining these visual criteria, in the group for low VVIQ (VVIQ ≤ 32), some participants showed the absence of all sensory imagery, while others showed specifically an absence of visual imagery. Individuals with aphantasia, identified by visual criteria, may have been mixed with those experiencing multi-sensory aphantasia. Our present study indicates that visual criteria are not sufficient to define multiple types of aphantasia and proposes that evaluations with multi-sensory imagery may help further characterize aphantasia for other types of sensory modality.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity of aphantasia revealed by multiple assessments of the capability for multi-sensory imagery

Takahashi

Saito

Omura

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The authors point out that "patients may only need to surpass a certain threshold of vividness for imaginal exposure to be effective" (Rauch et al, 2004), which is why greater group differences in imagery vividness should be targeted. Predestined for the dissociation of imagery and imagination are therefore people with aphantasia, describing a nonclinical condition that is primarily manifested by the inability to generate voluntary sensory mental imagery, whereas the ability to think propositionally is preserved (Monzel et al, 2022;Zeman et al, 2015Zeman et al, , 2016. Wicken et al (2021) showed that the physiological fear response when reading (i.e., imagining) scary stories was reduced in people with aphantasia, compared to a control group with no limitations in visual imagery.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imaginal extinction without imagery: Dissociating the effects of visual imagery and propositional thought by contrasting participants with aphantasia, simulated aphantasia, and controls

et al. 2023

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Imaginal exposure is a standard procedure of cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety and panic disorders. It is often used when in vivo exposure is not possible, too stressful for patients, or would be too expensive. Peter Lang's Bio‐Informational Theory implies that imaginal exposure is effective because of the perceptual proximity of mental imagery to real events, whereas empirical findings suggest that propositional thought of fear stimuli (i.e., thinking about the stimuli without seeing them in the mind's eye) could be sufficient in therapeutical contexts. Exposure to propositional thought, instead of vivid mental imagery, would be more tolerable for patients since vivid imagery is associated with high emotional distress. To investigate whether mental imagery or propositional thought is crucial for the success of imaginal exposure, participants with the rare state of aphantasia (= absence of sensory mental imagery but with intact propositional thought) and two control groups were subjected to a fear conditioning paradigm followed by imaginal exposure and a reinstatement procedure. During imaginal exposure, control group 1 (N = 30) stared at a bright screen to disrupt visual imagery by incoming luminance (= simulated aphantasia), whereas control group 2 (N = 30) and participants with actual aphantasia (N = 30) kept their eyes closed. The results show […].

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“…However, it is not clear yet, whether dopaminergic hypoactivity also leads to the inability to form voluntary endogenous representations. The complete absence of voluntary mental imagery as the hallmark of aphantasia (Monzel et al., 2022b; Zeman et al., 2015) is found in about 3.9% of the population (Dance et al., 2022) and is reported to occur in all sensory modalities (Dawes et al., 2020; Monzel et al., 2022a). Studies on aphantasia already show the impact of absent mental imagery on various cognitive, sensory, and emotional processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of dopamine in visual imagery—An experimental pharmacological study

Monzel,

Karneboge,

Reuter

2023

J of Neuroscience Research

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Mental imagery enables people to simulate experiences in their minds without the presence of an external stimulus. The underlying biochemical mechanisms are poorly understood but there is vague evidence that dopamine may play a significant role. A better understanding at the biochemical level could help to unravel the mechanisms of mental imagery and related phenomena such as aphantasia (= lack of voluntary mental imagery), but also opens up possibilities for interventions to enhance or restore mental imagery. To test the hypothesis that acute dopamine depletion leads to a decrease in the strength of mental imagery, N = 22 male participants will be administered an amino acid mixture containing branched‐chain amino acids (BCAAs) and tryptophan (TRP) to transiently reduce dopamine synthesis and further N = 22 male participants will receive a placebo. Plasma prolactin (PRL) levels are determined as a peripheral marker of brain dopamine function. The strength of mental imagery will be measured before and after ingestion of the BCAA/TRP mixture using the method of mental imagery priming. Additional exploratory analyses will use genetic data to investigate possible effects of variations on dopaminergic gene loci (e.g., DAT1) on dopamine levels and strength of mental imagery. The results show […].

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Aphantasia, dysikonesia, anauralia: call for a single term for the lack of mental imagery–Commentary on Dance et al. (2021) and Hinwar and Lambert (2021)

Cited by 17 publications

References 21 publications

Diversity of aphantasia revealed by multiple assessments of the capability for multi-sensory imagery

Diversity of aphantasia revealed by multiple assessments of the capability for multi-sensory imagery

Imaginal extinction without imagery: Dissociating the effects of visual imagery and propositional thought by contrasting participants with aphantasia, simulated aphantasia, and controls

The role of dopamine in visual imagery—An experimental pharmacological study

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