GoKawiilStudy on aphantasia challenges 'reverse vision' theory of imagination
A review published in Consciousness and Cognition by Derek Arnold, Loren Bouyer, Blake Saurels and Samuel Schwarzkopf argues that mental imagery is not simply visual perception run backward through the primary visual cortex. Drawing on cases of aphantasia—a lifelong inability to form mental images—and patients who retain imagery despite losing visual cortex tissue, the authors contend that imagination arises from cooperation among frontal and other distributed brain regions rather than a single visual 'screen.'