UNSW Pupil Test for Aphantasia

In 2022, researchers at UNSW Sydney published a study showing that pupil size changes can objectively track visual imagination. When participants imagined bright or dark shapes with their eyes open, people without aphantasia (the inability to visualize things in your mind) still showed the expected pupil constriction or dilation, but 18 self-reported aphantasic participants demonstrated no meaningful pupil difference between imagined bright versus imagined dark objects.

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