Imageless imagery in aphantasia revealed by early visual cortex decoding
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Activity in early visual cortex is thought to tightly couple with conscious experience, including feedback-driven mental imagery. However, the state of mental imagery, what takes its place or how any activity relates to qualia in those with aphantasia (a complete lack of visual imagery) remains unknown. In the current study, univariate (amplitude) and multivariate (decoding) BOLD signals during imagery attempts were recorded in primary visual cortex. Unlike in those with imagery, neural signatures in those with validated aphantasia were ipsilateral and could not be cross-decoded with perceptual representations. Further, perception-induced neural activation was weaker in those with aphantasia compared to controls. Together, these data suggest that an imagery-related representation, but with less or transformed sensory information, exists in the primary visual cortex of those with aphantasia. Our data challenges the classic view that activity in primary visual cortex should result in sensory qualia.
Source: Current Biology
Authors: Shuai Chang, Xinyu Zhang, Yangjianyi Cao, Joel Pearson, Ming Meng
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China, South China Normal University, Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Chinesisch-Deutsche Zentrum für Wissenschaftsförderung, Sino-Danish Center, Australian Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W4406235498