School of Psychology, University of Sussex, BN1 9QJ, UK.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK.
Conscious Cogn. 2021 Mar;89:103087. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103087. Epub 2021 Feb 3.
For people with aphantasia, visual imagery is absent or markedly impaired. Here, we investigated the relationship between aphantasia and two other neurodevelopmental conditions also linked to imagery differences: synaesthesia, and autism. In Experiment 1a and 1b, we asked whether aphantasia and synaesthesia can co-occur, an important question given that synaesthesia is linked to strong imagery. Taking grapheme-colour synaesthesia as a test case, we found that synaesthesia can be objectively diagnosed in aphantasics, suggesting visual imagery is not necessary for synaesthesia to occur. However, aphantasia influenced the type of synaesthesia experienced (favouring 'associator' over 'projector' synaesthesia - a distinction tied to the phenomenology of the synaesthetic experience). In Experiment 2, we asked whether aphantasics have traits associated with autism, an important question given that autism - like aphantasia - is linked to weak imagery. We found that aphantasics reported more autistic traits than controls, with weaknesses in imagination and social skills.
对于没有表象能力的人来说，视觉表象是缺失或明显受损的。在这里，我们研究了表象缺失与另外两种也与表象差异有关的神经发育状况之间的关系：联觉和自闭症。在实验 1a 和 1b 中，我们询问了表象缺失和联觉是否可能同时存在，鉴于联觉与强烈的表象有关，这是一个重要的问题。以字母-颜色联觉为例，我们发现联觉可以在没有表象能力的人中被客观诊断，这表明联觉的发生并不需要视觉表象。然而，表象缺失会影响所经历的联觉类型（偏向于“联想者”而不是“投射者”联觉——这种区别与联觉体验的现象学有关）。在实验 2 中，我们询问了自闭症患者是否具有与自闭症相关的特征，鉴于自闭症与表象缺失一样与弱表象有关，这是一个重要的问题。我们发现，自闭症患者比对照组报告了更多的自闭症特征，在想象力和社交技能方面存在弱点。
