(A)phantasia and SDAM: Scientific and Personal Perspectives

Abstract

I address two interlinked aspects of the diversity in our experiences of memory and the mind's eye. I summarise the long-appreciated role of imagery in mathematics and the physical sciences, and contrast it with the evidence that some scientists have had limited or zero imagery. I then recount the story of how I became aware of my own lack of mental imagery, and the accompanying deficit in my episodic memory, how I have sought scientific understanding of these conditions, and how they have affected my life.

Phantasia–The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes

“…A further study, in keeping with the findings of Keogh & Pearson (Keogh & Pearson, 2018) indicates that the aphantasia is likely to reflect a selective reduction in 'object imagery' as opposed to 'spatial imagery' (Bainbridge, Pounder, Eardley, & Baker, 2020). A personal account of aphantasia (Watkins, 2017) has highlighted a possible association with the recently described syndrome of Severely Deficient Autobiographical memory (Palombo, Alain, Soderlund, Khuu, & Levine, 2015). The description of aphantasia has also redirected attention to the opposite extreme of the vividness spectrum, which we have termed 'hyperphantasia', imagery 'as vivid as real seeing'.…”