Start Here

This site exists because of observation and research. Many of the posts here are built on a study, a book, a podcast, or a paper that added something to my understanding of aphantasia.

Click here to get to the list of all the sources

The link above opens a Google Sheet with every blog post covered on this site. Each row has the title, what was found, who wrote it, and a direct link to the post. You can sort by topic or filter by type of source to find what is most relevant to you. New rows get added every time a new post goes up. Some of the sources I have used have not been turned into a blog post yet and that is why there is no link to them.

If you want to go to the beginning of the research, you have to start with Adma Zeman's work in which he "discovers" aphantasia and then names it.

https://www.nopictureneeded.com/post/the-case-that-started-everything-the-first-time-science-documented-a-person-without-a-mind-s-eye

https://www.nopictureneeded.com/post/the-paper-that-named-it

And if you want to start with some satire to wake you up, these are the first two posts you should read:

SCIENTISTS DISCOVER WOMAN LIVING IN REMOTE VILLAGE, THRIVING WITHOUT MENTAL IMAGERY OF ANY KIND

NEW DISORDER IDENTIFIED IN MILLIONS WHO REPORTEDLY "SEE THINGS" INSIDE THEIR OWN HEADS

A note about the posts. I err on the side of being too brief in the summaries figuring people want a quick read and if they are interested, they can go to the study. While I might explain some of the numbers, I think it's worth explaining P values and Rho numbers here for your reference:

What is a p-value?

A p-value is the probability that a result happened by chance rather than reflecting a real pattern. The lower the number, the less likely the finding is random noise. Researchers generally treat anything below .05, meaning less than a 5% chance of being random, as meaningful. Think of it as a coincidence score. The lower it is, the more confident researchers are that something real is going on.

What is Rho?

Rho is a correlation coefficient, a measure of how strongly two things move together, on a scale from 0 to 1. A Rho of 0 means no relationship at all. A Rho of 1 means a perfect one, where knowing one value tells you exactly what the other will be. Researchers generally treat anything above 0.3 as a weak association, above 0.5 as moderate, and above 0.7 as strong. The closer Rho is to 1, the more reliably the two things track each other across individuals.