Aphantasia modulates immersion experience but not eye fixation patterns during story reading
Acta Psychologica February 13, 2026 Hina Kawaguchi, Vincent Taschereau-Dumouchel, Hakwan Lau et al.
People with aphantasia, who report no visual mental imagery, show the same gaze patterns as controls when reading imagery-rich stories. Both groups fixated longer on words and phrases describing sensory-rich perceptual imagery. Despite these identical eye movements, aphantasics reported feeling less immersed in the stories. Among controls, longer fixation on perceptual imagery correlated with stronger self-reported mental imagery, but this relationship was absent or reversed in aphantasics. The findings tentatively suggest that imagery may occur nonconsciously in aphantasia, with the condition primarily impairing introspective access to mental images rather than eliminating imagery itself.