The capacity to summon images to the mind's eye appears to play a major role in memory, daydreaming and fantasy as well as in creative thinking by scientists, writers and artists (Schacter & Addis, 2007;Smallwood & Schooler, 2015). Evidence from cognitive psychology supports a functional role for imagery in cognition, while cognitive neuroscience has begun to delineate the brain regions and networks that subserve it (Pearson, Naselaris, Holmes, & Kosslyn, 2015). However, its distinctive contribution to cognition has been questioned (Kosslyn, 2006), and a recent report (Zeman, Dewar, & Della Sala, 2015) has reinforced Galton's contention (Galton, 1880) that a small minority of the population -with lifelong 'aphantasia' -lack conscious visual imagery entirely. This Special Issue, was inspired by a unique interdisciplinary project and associated conference: it approaches the vibrant topic of visual imagery from a range of complementary perspectives, with contributors from cognitive and clinical psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, computer science, art and art history and literary criticism.