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Seeing Is Feeling: How Aphantasia Alters Emotional Engagement With Stories
Noha Abdelrahman1,2, David Melcher2,3, Pablo Ripollés1,4,5
1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, USA.
Psychophysiology
|July 11, 2025
Summary
Visual imagery enhances emotional engagement with stories. Individuals with aphantasia, who cannot form mental images, report lower emotional engagement and show different physiological responses compared to controls.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Media Psychology
Background:
- Visual imagery is theorized to amplify emotions and deepen narrative engagement.
- Understanding the role of mental imagery in processing emotionally charged narratives is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of visual imagery on narrative engagement.
- To compare emotional and cognitive engagement between individuals with and without aphantasia.
- To explore the physiological underpinnings of mental imagery during storytelling.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using emotionally charged audio and video story excerpts.
- Participants included general population samples and individuals with aphantasia versus controls.
- Narrative engagement was assessed using the Narrative Engagement Questionnaire (NEQ) and physiological measures (heart rate).
Main Results:
- Video stimuli led to higher engagement across all NEQ subscales compared to audio.
- Individuals with aphantasia reported significantly lower emotional engagement than controls.
- Controls exhibited higher heart rate during audio narratives, suggesting imagery-related mental effort.
Conclusions:
- Visual imagery capacity enhances emotional engagement with narratives.
- The mental effort to generate imagery influences physiological responses during auditory storytelling.
- Mental imagery plays a distinct role in both subjective and physiological aspects of narrative engagement.
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