Facts about Aphantasia

1. 05

   Many individuals only discover they have aphantasia after reading accounts of visual imagery, having assumed everyone experienced memory and imagination the same way they did.

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2. 04

   Aphantasia exists on a spectrum, with some individuals retaining faint or partial mental imagery rather than a complete absence, a condition sometimes called hyperphantasia at the opposite extreme.

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3. 03

   Estimated to affect roughly 2–3% of the population, aphantasia was largely unrecognized as a condition before Zeman's research brought it to wider attention.

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4. 02

   People with aphantasia can still dream, recall episodic memories, and navigate spatial environments, indicating mental imagery is distinct from other cognitive functions.

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5. 01

   The term aphantasia was coined by neurologist Adam Zeman in 2015 to describe the inability to voluntarily form mental images.

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