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← Glossary

Aphantasia

The inability, or severely reduced ability, to form voluntary mental imagery. Most often used for visual imagery but can apply to other senses.

The term was coined in 2015 by Adam Zeman and colleagues at the University of Exeter. It is not a disorder — it does not appear in the DSM or the ICD — and it does not need treating. Estimated prevalence is somewhere between 2% and 5% of the population, depending on where you draw the line.

Aphantasia is not a single capability. Some people have no visual imagery but normal imagery in other senses. Others have no imagery in any modality — sometimes called multi-sensory aphantasia. Spatial reasoning is usually preserved.