Origins of acquired aphantasia: our new preprint shows links to affective conditions, early life adversity, neurodevelopmental traits, and increased autonomic reactivity - indicating an affective-autonomic pathway #aphantasia #MentalHealth #interoception

The insula is often ignored in neuroimaging studies on mental imagery. However, a new study by @TimoKvamme shows visual imagery is linked (amongst other areas) to more efficient structural connectivity in the right insula

RT @Martel_MF: Happy to share my latest work with @Scott_Glover_RH. @RHULPsychology @SurreyPsych .We show that motor imagery is functional….

Do you have aphantasia? Would you be interested in taking part in a study exploring how we associate emotions with different body parts? It only takes 15 min! You can take part here: Contact: nurdilaraozata@hotmail.com.

RT @BR_OpenIce: Aleksander Barkov really went walking around his neighborhood at 5am, knocking on his neighbors doors to show them the Stan….

The preprint is available here:

4/ These results are consistent with reports dating back to 19th century of affective conditions leading to loss of imagery ; see e.g.

3/ Affective conditions can heighten autonomic arousal and distort interoceptive awareness, disrupting the neural processes needed to construct vivid mental imagery.

2/ We surveyed 59 individuals with acquired aphantasia; 62% linked their imagery loss to psychological causes. Relative to typical imagers, acquired aphantasia was also associated with had higher scores on childhood trauma; autonomic reactivity; ADHD and autism.

Testing the interoceptive model of aphantasia: our new study looks at the interplay between deficits in self-reported interoceptive awareness and autobiographical memory in aphantasia. With @MerlinMonzel.and Yoko Nagai #aphantasia #interoception.

Both objective and subjective measures of interoception are linked to imagery vividdess. It’s been a real pleasure working on this with brilliant team from BSMS/Surrey, Yoko Nagai and Hugo Critchley.

Mental imagery, by nature, engages both physiological and emotional responses as it reconstructs past experiences and envisions future events. This mind-body connection is mediated by autonomic responses and interoceptive processes. 2/3.

Heightened (cardioceptive) physiological sensitivity facilitates the active deployment of imagery in mental rotation and enhances the vividness of imagery experience 1/3.

🙌 Heads up to @DrJJMurphy for her Interoceptive Accuracy and Attention scales which we used to measure interoception in our study!.

Aphantasia isn’t a single condition! Our findings highlight its heterogeneity: hypophantasia (weak but present imagery) is linked to more emotional difficulties, while core aphantasia (no imagery) shows a different profile. 5/5.

Interoception matters too! The balance between subjective interoceptive accuracy and attention explains the link between weak imagery, alexithymia, and negatiev mental healt #Interoception 4/5.

Alexithymia (difficulty identifying emotions) mediates the link between imagery & mental health in both groups. Emotional awareness may be key to understanding why imagery ability impacts wellbeing. 🧠💡 #Alexithymia 3/5.

We studied 833 people (153 aphantasics, 680 controls); .🔑 Key finding: Hypophantasia (weak imagery), not complete lack of imagery, is linked to more alexithymia & worse mental health. 2/5.

New work with @TimoKvamme @MerlinMonzel and Yoko Nagai: Aphantasia has been linked to alexithymia & poorer mental health, but why? 🤔 Since mental health is tied to interoception, we examined whether interoceptive processing plays a role in this relationship. #aphantasia 1/5.

The interoceptive theory of aphantasia: how the insula and interoception contribute to mental imagery. (with Yoko Nagai).