Aphantasia, dysikonesia, anauralia: call for a single term for the lack of mental imagery-Commentary on Dance et al. (2021) and Hinwar and Lambert (2021)

Merlin Monzel; David Mitchell; Fiona Macpherson; Joel Pearson; Adam Zeman

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.002

Aphantasia, dysikonesia, anauralia: call for a single term for the lack of mental imagery-Commentary on Dance et al. (2021) and Hinwar and Lambert (2021)

Cortex. 2022 May:150:149-152. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.002. Epub 2022 Feb 26.

Authors

Merlin Monzel¹, David Mitchell², Fiona Macpherson³, Joel Pearson⁴, Adam Zeman⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Germany. Electronic address: merlin.monzel@uni-bonn-diff.de.
² Faculty of Philosophy, New College of the Humanities, London, UK.
³ Department of Philosophy, University of Glasgow, UK.
⁴ School of Psychology, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Cognitive Neurology Research Group, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK.

PMID: 35314076
DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2022.02.002

Abstract

Recently, the term 'aphantasia' has become current in scientific and public discourse to denote the absence of mental imagery. However, new terms for aphantasia or its subgroups have recently been proposed, e.g., 'dysikonesia' or 'anauralia', which complicates the literature, research communication and understanding for the general public. Before further terms emerge, we advocate the consistent use of the term 'aphantasia' as it can be used flexibly and precisely, and is already widely known in the scientific community and among the general public.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Humans
Imagery, Psychotherapy
Imagination*
Visual Perception*