Autism and Aphantasia

Aphantasia is characterised by an inability to have volitional imagined sensations. While initially characterised as an inability to visualise, Aphantasia is now regarded as having a multisensory profile, that can manifest in inabilities to have imagined sensations of sound, smell, taste, touch and of bodily sensations. Aphantasia has repeatedly been linked to autism - a neurodevelopmental condition that can shape how a person interacts with others and experiences the world. The strength of this association may, however, have been overstated due to how autism is typically operationalised in empirical studies. To address this concern, we recruited a sample (N = 327) of participants who all self-reported having a formal diagnosis of autism. We found that members of this autistic group generally reported having less salient imagined experiences than a comparison group, but Visual Aphantasia was not more prevalent in the autistic group. However, a greater proportion of the autistic group did report being unable to have imagined sensations of smell and of taste. These associations were primarily driven by questions relating to people's ability to have imagined sensations, but they were also driven by questions relating to non-verbal communication. Overall, our data suggest that associations between autism and multisensory Aphantasia are weak, particularly for visual imagery. However, poor face processing skills are common to both autistic people and to Aphantasics, and this could either be a cause or a marker of difficulties with non-verbal communication skills that encourage a weak association between multisensory Aphantasia and autism.