Episode 16 (bonus episode)

Ella Rhodes, journalist for The Psychologist magazine, delves into the growing body of research exploring aphantasia – a condition she has personal experience of. While most people can see images formed in their minds people with aphantasia draw a blank, what might this mean for autobiographical memory, face perception and imagination?  Our guests, in order of appearance, are: Zoe Pounder at the University of Westminster and Professor Adam Zeman at the University of Exeter.  Background resources for this episode:  This man had no idea his mind is "blind" until last week. Mental rotation performance in aphantasia. Loss of imagery phenomenology with intact visuo-spatial task performance: a case of "blind imagination". Lives without imagery – Congenital aphantasia. The neural correlates of visual imagery vividness – An fMRI study and literature review. The neural correlates of visual imagery: A co-ordinate-based meta-analysis. On Picturing a Candle: The Prehistory of Imagery Science. The Eye’s Mind - Zeman’s apahantasia research project. A scientific measure of our visual imagination suggests it is surprisingly limited Episode credits: Presented and produced by Ella Rhodes. Mixing Jeff Knowler. Music Sincere Love by Monplaisir. PsychCrunch theme music Catherine Loveday and Jeff Knowler. Art work Tim Grimshaw.