Hyperphantasia is the condition of having extremely vivid mental imagery.[1] It is the opposite condition to aphantasia, where mental visual imagery is not present.[2][3] The experience of hyperphantasia is more common than aphantasia[4][5] and has been described as being "as vivid as real seeing".[4] Hyperphantasia constitutes all five senses within vivid mental imagery, although literature on the subject is dominated by "visual" mental imagery research, with a lack of research on the other four senses.[6]
Research into hyperphantasia is most commonly completed by self-report questionnaires, such as the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), developed by David Marks in 1973, which evaluates the vividness of an individual's mental imagery out of a score of 80.[6] Individuals scoring from 75 to 80 are deemed hyperphantasics and are estimated to constitute around 2.5% of the population.[2]
- ^ Cossins D (5 June 2019). "How people with extreme imagination are helping explain consciousness". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- ^ a b Zeman A, Milton F, Della Sala S, Dewar M, Frayling T, Gaddum J, et al. (September 2020). "Phantasia–The psychological significance of lifelong visual imagery vividness extremes". Cortex; A Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior. 130: 426–440. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.04.003. hdl:20.500.11820/1ff69a7f-ca92-4745-8165-26f8ca62d6d4. PMID 32446532. S2CID 218486387.
- ^ Keogh, Rebecca; Pearson, Joel; Zeman, Adam (2021), "Aphantasia: The science of visual imagery extremes", Neurology of Vision and Visual Disorders, Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 178, Elsevier, pp. 277–296, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-821377-3.00012-x, ISBN 978-0-12-821377-3, PMID 33832681, S2CID 233193117, retrieved 2023-05-09
- ^ a b Zeman A (4 May 2020). "An update on 'extreme imagination' – aphantasia / hyperphantasia". The Eye's Mind. University of Exeter. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
- ^ Maddox L (14 November 2019). "Aphantasia: what it's like to live with no mind's eye". BBC Science Focus Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
- ^ a b Pearson J (October 2019). "The human imagination: the cognitive neuroscience of visual mental imagery". Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. 20 (10): 624–634. doi:10.1038/s41583-019-0202-9. PMID 31384033. S2CID 199449027.