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Resources

Where to go next.

A curated list of the external places worth your time. Each has been checked and is current at time of writing; if you find a broken or moved link, please tell us via the about page.

UK research groups

  • The Eye’s Mind, University of Exeter — Adam Zeman’s group. The UK academic home of aphantasia research and the source of the term itself. Run studies that recruit UK-resident participants.
  • Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience, University of Glasgow — Fiona Macpherson’s group. Broader programme on imagination, imagery, and consciousness including the extremes.
  • Rotman Research Institute, Toronto — home of SDAM research. Accepts international (including UK) participants.

Validated questionnaires

  • Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ) — the standard measure of imagery vividness. See our glossary entry for what the test is measuring. The canonical version is hosted by the Aphantasia Network.
  • Survey of Autobiographical Memory (SAM) — the standard measure for SDAM. See our glossary entry.

We deliberately link to the canonical hosts rather than re-hosting the tests. If you are a researcher and the links below are stale, please let us know.

Peer resources (non-UK, but useful)

  • Aphantasia Network (Canada) — the largest international community and the host of the VVIQ. Community skews North American; useful nonetheless.
  • Mind Void (US) — long-running lived-experience site from one of the earliest public voices on aphantasia.
  • r/Aphantasia and r/SDAM on Reddit — useful for pattern recognition, not as evidence. As with any Reddit community, treat as public testimony, not medical information.

UK mental-health support

Recognising aphantasia or SDAM in oneself can be emotionally heavy. If you need someone to talk to:

  • Samaritans — free, confidential, 24/7. Call 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.
  • Mind — UK mental-health charity with support lines and local services: mind.org.uk.
  • Rethink Mental Illness — especially if the recognition arrives alongside other cognitive or emotional changes: rethink.org.
  • For under-25s, YoungMinds — youngminds.org.uk.

Books worth reading

  • Adam Zeman’s 2024 review article in Trends in Cognitive Sciences (“Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes”) is the most accessible synthesis available to a non-specialist.
  • For the wider history of imagery research — from Galton in 1880 to the present day — Zeman’s The Consciousness Instinct (chapters on imagery) and Alan Richardson’s earlier work are good starting points.

Our own things

  • The cornerstone guide — the backbone of this site, fully cited, UK-focused.
  • The glossary — plain-English definitions of the terms the research uses.
  • The research tracker — monthly plain-English summaries of new peer-reviewed findings.
  • The newsletter — one email a month, nothing else.
  • The forum — UK-focused peer community.