The critical role of mental imagery in human emotion: insights from fear-based imagery and aphantasia

TLDR

Imagery is thought to enhance emotional vividness through sensory simulation, aiding future planning and memory recall, yet it can also exacerbate anxiety when thoughts become overwhelming. This study tests that hypothesis by examining individuals with aphantasia, a condition lacking visual imagery. Compared to controls, aphantasic participants exhibited no skin‑conductance response to reading or imagining frightening narratives, whereas their responses to viewing fearful images were normal, indicating that the absence of visual imagery dampens emotional arousal and supporting the emotional amplification theory.

Abstract

One proposed function of imagery is to make thoughts more emotionally evocative through sensory simulation, which can be helpful both in planning for future events and in remembering the past, but also a hindrance when thoughts become overwhelming and maladaptive, such as in anxiety disorders. Here, we report a novel test of this theory using a special population with no visual imagery: aphantasia. After using multi-method verification of aphantasia, we show that this condition, but not the general population, is associated with a flat-line physiological response (skin conductance levels) to reading and imagining frightening stories. Importantly, we show in a second experiment that this difference in physiological responses to fear-inducing stimuli is not found when perceptually viewing fearful images. These data demonstrate that the aphantasic individuals' lack of a physiological response when imaging scenarios is likely to be driven by their inability to visualize and is not due to a general emotional or physiological dampening. This work provides evidence that a lack of visual imagery results in a dampened emotional response when reading fearful scenarios, providing evidence for the emotional amplification theory of visual imagery.