We don’t all imagine in the same way
Have you ever wondered what really goes on in other people’s heads when they learn, recall a face, or simply imagine?
People talk about imagining as if it went without saying, as if the same verb opened the same inner life. The word can bring up a sharp, colorful scene, or show nothing at all, without the knowledge of the thing disappearing. That invisible diversity is called the mental imagery spectrum.
Think of an apple
The simplest way to understand this gap is still to try it yourself. Close your eyes for a second, think of an apple, and notice what appears in your mind. There is no right answer, and thankfully so.
Four people, the same prompt, and each one answers in their own words.
- apple
Aphantasia
Absence of imagery
“So, I know what it is, it’s an apple. It’s round, probably red or green, and it tastes good, I like apples. But nothing really comes. I think in words and facts, not in pictures or other sensations.”
Hypophantasia
Dimmed imagery
“Something does form, pale, a bit blurry. But as soon as I try to look at it properly, it falls apart. I know what an apple is, and I even feel a bit of the taste in my mouth. But it’s very faint and hard to hold.”
Phantasia
The faculty of mental imagery
“An apple, yeah. I see it, it’s there. Not sharp like a photo, but I see it. I can look at it, touch it, smell it, and even if it isn’t very sharp, it’s still a thing in my head.”
Hyperphantasia
Very vivid imagery
“I see everything, and very clearly: the skin, the shine, the stem, the leaf… I imagine biting into it, the taste and the texture in my mouth. I can even have fun spinning it every which way.”
The apple test is the example you see everywhere. It has been worn thin, and it still works. One prompt, four different answers.
The mental imagery spectrum
For a long time, people thought visualization came down to a binary switch between seeing and seeing nothing. Asking the people around you shows that minds spread across endless shades, from complete darkness to an almost photographic sharpness.
The association took these four names and wrote them out in full: where the word comes from, what the zone covers, and the estimated share of the population. Four pages, one encyclopedia.
- Aphan
tasiaAbout one person in a hundred - Hypo
phantasiaAbout three people in a hundred - PhantasiaAbout ninety people in a hundred
- Hyper
phantasiaAbout six people in a hundred
Aphantasia
The privative a- means absence.
Thought runs through words and facts. No image comes when you ask for one, while knowledge of the thing stays whole.
Learn more about Aphantasia(opens in a new tab)Hypophantasia
Greek hypo- means “under, beneath”.
An image forms, pale and brief, and it falls apart at the exact moment you try to look at it.
Learn more about Hypophantasia(opens in a new tab)Phantasia
Greek phantasia names the image that appears to the mind.
Images come when you call them, with a sharpness that varies a lot from one person to the next.
Learn more about Phantasia(opens in a new tab)Hyperphantasia
Greek hyper- means “over, beyond”.
Imagery so vivid it comes close to perception, and that is sometimes hard to pause.
Learn more about Hyperphantasia(opens in a new tab)
An association run by the people who live it
Aphantasia Club is the first French association devoted to the mental imagery spectrum. Two volunteers who live without mental images founded it in 2021, and today it brings together a community that shares its experiences, makes the subject known, and works alongside researchers. Four goals carry this mission:
Gather
Create a space to meet, talk, and feel understood. A community to share what you live, ask your questions, and move forward together, without judgment.
Make it known
Make aphantasia, hyperphantasia, and every way of thinking and imagining known. Explain them simply so they are better understood in daily life, at school, or at work.
Detect
Help each person understand their own mental functioning better, through accessible tools. Aphantasia Club offers clear landmarks and, when needed, a pointer toward the right resources.
Research
Encourage and support studies on mental imagery, and help knowledge move forward. We make it easier for the community and researchers to talk, so the diversity of how our minds work can be better understood.
Aphantasia is not an illness.
There is nothing to treat and nothing to correct. Aphantasia is a neurodivergence, a natural way of functioning that departs from the majority without being a defect. Like handedness or perfect pitch, this variation adds to human diversity and comes with its own balances.
Read the most common misunderstandingsA-Quest, the mental imagery questionnaire
Tests are an essential part of the aphantasia journey: most of us discovered it by taking one. They always come down to introspection, and we dislike both the word and the idea of a “quick test”. Questioning yourself and discovering how you work is worthwhile, and it deserves a real questionnaire, built with scientific rigour and carefully curated.
A-Quest explores your mental imagery across several senses, along with effort, control, dreams, and memories, then sends back a personalized, indicative summary of the way you imagine. Researchers and people who live with it wrote it together with Aphantasia Club, and each answer helps research describe the spectrum better.
- Free and open to everyone
- No name or email address asked for
- A summary of your profile at the end
Join the community
Bringing together the people who live with it is a goal written into our statutes, and in practice it looks like a conversation that never really stops. People compare experiences there without having to prove anything. Many discover they are not alone in working this way, and sometimes that someone close to them isn’t either.
- Discord
Discord
Where people talk every day, among aphantasic, phantasic, and hyperphantasic people, and relatives who came to understand.
Instagram
Explainers in images, calls for participants, and meetup announcements.
- La lettre
La lettre
The club’s monthly illustrated edition. It is written in French.
Facebook
The same announcements, for the people who don’t use Instagram.
Recevoir La lettre par mail
The letter is in French.
Memberships and donations, back soon
For the moment, the association is not collecting fees, memberships, or donations. Those steps are being reorganized. We will let you know here, and on our social channels, as soon as it is possible again.
- (opens in a new tab)
Join the conversation
Tell your experience on Discord, without having to prove anything, among people who work the way you do or who are trying to understand.
- (opens in a new tab)
Pass a post along
A share around you helps someone who does not have a word for it yet discover they are not the only one.
- (opens in a new tab)
Answer A-Quest
The questionnaire is open, and each answer helps describe the spectrum better rather than reduce it to one camp.
We are at the table too
We do not only relay publications. We talk with the teams, we answer researchers’ questions, and we bring back what the community lives every day so that protocols take it into account.
These studies need participants
Teams send us their protocols, and we publish them so you can write directly to the ones that are recruiting.
Inner Experience Lab
Université Lumière Lyon 2
Online · 30 to 50 minutes
Alexithymia, online questionnaires
Université Lumière Lyon 2
Online · 20 minutes · Unpaid
Color memory and EEG, in Lyon
Université Lumière Lyon 2
On site · 3 hours · Paid
They carry this work with us
Research bodies, universities, hospitals, and a festival stand alongside the association and the A-Quest project, each in its own place, from a laboratory bench to workshops open to the public.
Inserm
(opens in a new tab)
CNRS
(opens in a new tab)
Agence nationale de la recherche
(opens in a new tab)
Université Bourgogne Europe
(opens in a new tab)
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1
(opens in a new tab)
Hospices civils de Lyon
(opens in a new tab)
CHU Dijon Bourgogne
(opens in a new tab)
Festival TURFU
(opens in a new tab)
What we get asked most often
The practical questions, the ones that come back most often in our messages and under our posts. For everything that touches the science, the spectrum encyclopedia answers in more detail, and the association page tells who we are, how to invite us, and how to support us.
How can I tell if I am aphantasic?
The A-Quest questionnaire is an online test that explores your mental imagery across several senses and sends back a readable summary of the way you imagine. Its scientific validation is still underway, and in the end, you are the one who recognises your experience in what it describes.
Can you be aphantasic without knowing it?
Yes, and that is even the most common case. Many people discover it in adulthood, in the course of a conversation or an article. Until you have the word, nothing pushes you to compare your own experience with other people’s.
How many people are aphantasic?
It is estimated that about 1% of the population has total aphantasia, and that around 3% have hypophantasia (dimmed imagery). That percentage varies by study and by the exact definition used, but it represents a very large number of people worldwide. The vast majority of the population, though, sits in the central zone of the spectrum, phantasia.
Is there a link between aphantasia and autism?
Aphantasia and the autism spectrum (or Asperger syndrome) are two distinct neurodivergences. Some studies suggest that a slightly larger share of autistic people might also be aphantasic, and one does not imply the other. You can be aphantasic without being autistic, and the reverse.
What causes aphantasia?
In the vast majority of cases, aphantasia is present from birth (congenital origin). The genetic lead is very strong, because it is often shared within the same family. There are also rare cases of acquired aphantasia, where the loss of imagery happens later in life after a psychological or neurological event.
Is aphantasia recognized as a disability?
No. In France there is neither administrative recognition nor a specific accommodation. Simply because aphantasia, hypophantasia, and hyperphantasia are not considered disabilities as such. They can still have consequences for some parts of daily life. Understanding your own mental functioning better then makes it possible to adapt, and to live more calmly with your neurodivergences.
What happens to what I answer on the questionnaire?
The questionnaire asks for neither a name nor an email address. A resume code makes it possible to find an interrupted session, and some rare combinations of answers remain theoretically recognizable. So we do not promise absolute anonymity. The answers serve the work of the A-Quest consortium. The detail is in the questionnaire’s consent and privacy pages.
We read you, and we answer
Write to us by email, whether it is a question, the wish to tell your experience, a journalist’s request, or an invitation to come and speak. Everything lands in the same inbox, and we answer every message as well as we can.
We are not healthcare professionals, and the information published here is indicative. It does not in any case constitute a diagnosis or medical advice. If something worries you in daily life, talk about it with a healthcare professional.