Heterogeneous relationships between the multisensory content of aphantasics' dreams and their volitional waking imagined experiences.
Scientific reports June 12, 2026 Derek H Arnold, Loren N Bouyer, Merlin Monzel
People with Aphantasia, initially characterized as having a deficit in visual imagination, often also report lacking imagined sensations in other modalities such as sound, taste, smell, touch, and body movement. These patterns of imaginative inability vary individually. Many Aphantasics report visual dreams, suggesting the deficit might be specific to volitional waking imagined sensations. This study assessed the multisensory profiles of Aphantasics' dreams and found a typical correspondence between reported multisensory dream contents and volitional waking imagined experiences, though with considerable heterogeneity. Some Aphantasics show tight associations between dream and waking imagined sensations, while others show little or no correspondence, challenging researchers to explain these diverse outcomes.