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@juhasilvanto.bsky.social

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Cognitive neuroscientist currently interested in the interplay of interoception and imagery. Working hypothesis that aphantasia results from suboptimal processing of interoceptive signals in the insula

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jun 6

Interoceptive/insula theory of aphantasia: rather than purely a sensory deficit, aphantasia results from abnormal autonomic signaling and disrupted interoception:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39912831/

Some evidence:
osf.io/preprints/ps...
www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...
osf.io/preprints/ps...

How Interoception and the Insula Shape Mental Imagery and Aphantasia - PubMed

A major question in cognitive neuroscience is understanding the neural basis of mental imagery, particularly in cases of its absence, known as aphantasia. While research in this field has focused on t...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 7h

New study from @timokvamme.bsky.social
suggests we may have overlooked a critical brain region in mental imagery research: the insula:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
After decades of research focusing on sensory/frontal/parietal regions, the insula may be just as central to imagery.

Neural Network Topologies Supporting Individual Variations in Vividness of Visual Imagery

Vividness of visual imagery varies considerably across individuals, yet its neural underpinnings remain unclear. As emphasized in recent debates, a ke…

www.sciencedirect.com

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 1d

In this preprint we report that childhood trauma is linked to visual imagery deficits. Across imagery spectrum, severe childhood trauma is associated with a 20% decrease in imagery vividness vs low trauma; 4-5x higher prevalence of imagery deficits in severe vs low trauma.
osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 7d

Imagery/aphantasia: all roads lead to insula!

New comprehensive model combining attentional and interoceptive views of aphantasia.
Was a pleasure to be part of this with @christianoscholz.bsky.social @jianghaoliu.bsky.social @mmonzel.bsky.social @timokvamme.bsky.social
osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 25d

affective-autonomic pathway to acquired aphantasia: appr. 60% of acquired cases of aphantasia have psychogenic origin. In the interoceptive model, affective disorders disrupt the integration of bodily & cognitive signals needed for imagery. work with Yoko Nagai www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Autonomic, Neurodevelopmental, and Early Adversity Correlates of Acquired Aphantasia

Aphantasia (the inability to voluntarily generate mental imagery) has traditionally been studied as a congenital or neurological condition. However, h…

www.sciencedirect.com

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 9

yes, studies have found differences in RT, suggestive of different strategy in aphants. MR ability correlates with heartbeat discrimination; perhaps issue in aphantasia is general capacity to access and manipulate internal representations vs external stimuli (www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6... )

Interoception Predicts Mental Imagery Vividness: Exploring a Key Relationship

Interoception, the sense of the internal state of the body, plays a fundamental role in emotional awareness and self-referential processing. Recently, interoception has been linked to the experience o...

www.researchsquare.com

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 8

that's a great idea actually! Good luck!

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 8

seems that the auditory cortex’s route into salience hubs and onward to reward centers is selectively weakened....

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 8

yes, that's an interesting possibility! Re music, the most fascinating link I've come across (it was a group at NYU i think) who found very high comorbidity of aphantasia with musical anhedonia (but not other types of anhedonia...)..

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 8

very interesting work! they don't mention aphantasia or brain basis specifically but i think it would fit in well, with insula the mediating link! (we have argued this re aphantasia link.springer.com/article/10.1... )

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 7

yes, because ToM deficit is also a result of suboptimal interoception. In other words, interoception is foundation of both ToM (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... ) and imagery. So in short, in interoception is the foundation of both so thus a more fundamental explanation.

The role of interoceptive inference in theory of mind

Own mental states depend on inferred interoceptive states. Understanding another’s mental states (ToM) also entails interoceptive predictions. Multimodal expectations at deep hierarchical levels contr...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 7

The main issue in aphantasia research is that is too focused on the senses; like blaming muscles for paralysis after a stroke. The real problem may lie deeper, i. interoception and the autonomic nervous system (e.g. congenital aphantasics show lower POTS symptoms, suggestive of lower level issues).

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 7

...but what do you make of aphantasia being linked to various of those scales... e.g. self-reported autonomic reactivity (BPQ); chilhdood trauma (CTQ), autism/adhd (also VVIQ is linked to cardioceptive sensitivity)...the overall pattern suggests some kind of interoceptive agnosia

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 7

misophonia is linked to abnormal interoceptive processing....as is autism....this could be the link....and ther potential link to aphantasia

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 7

yes and that's critical distinction...aphantasia may link to sense of agency which is to large extent an interoceptive process..

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Aug 7

It’s perhaps not misdescription but reduced access to internal states. Cong /Acq aphants self-report lower/higher autonomic reactivity vs controls, and cardioceptive sensitivity tracks VVIQ.

Reposted

Sam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · Jul 21

New from Arnold @visnerd.bsky.social lab:

Mental rotation is often regarded as paradigmatic for #mentalimagery. But it turns out people often don't use imagery for mental rotation - & when they do it is often not useful (same viewpoint trials). #visionscience #psychscisky

doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

Redirecting

doi.org

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 31

been a fan of @visnerd.bsky.social 's work for 20 years... his new paper is really important as it shows the limitation of Binocular Rivalry as measure of imagery vividness...important implications for aphantasia research; BR may not be objective gold standard

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Objective priming from pre-imagining inputs before binocular rivalry presentations does not predict individual differences in the subjective intensity of imagined experiences

Most people can imagine images that they experience within their mind's eye. However, there are marked individual differences, with some people report…

www.sciencedirect.com

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 30

will become a classic in the field, i think.

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 30

Such fascinating work! I also 100% recommend this paper from the same @kerblooee.bsky.social group - the first predictive model of how we distinguish internal and external percepts...explaining imagery, halllucination... great glinical implications academic.oup.com/nc/article/2...

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Reposted

Janel Le Belle @janellebelle.bsky.social · Jul 27

*Worth your time to read!*

Some experts predict the impact of superhuman AI over the next decade in “AI 2027”, a scenario that represents their best guess about what that might look like very soon & it’s implications for all of us:

ai-2027.com

AI 2027

A research-backed AI scenario forecast.

ai-2027.com

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 25

Really interesting work! Muraki and Pexman are taking aphantasia research into fascinating new directions!

Emiko J Muraki @emij.bsky.social · Jul 17

🧠 Just out with @pennypexman.bsky.social “Simulation in the ‘Blind’ Mind”.

We found that even without conscious imagery (aphantasia), people still simulate sensorimotor info when processing language. 💭🔤

Reposted

Emiko J Muraki @emij.bsky.social · Jul 17

➡️ Faster processing of motor-linked words in aphantasia suggest that mental simulation is intact even in the absence of conscious mental imagery.

📄 Full article in this Neuropsychologia special issue (doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...)

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 17

Your preprint is very cool. Really impressive work!!!! Lot of food for thought! @chkhaidze.bsky.social

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juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 17

*the above should have said emotions, agency and embodiment....

juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · Jul 17

Also, strong imagers had affectively intense, immersive hallucination; emotions and agency suggest stronger insula-interoceptive system coupling with visual system. (As interoceptive signals are less salient, they may go unreported when prompts emphasize exteroceptive experience)....

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