Australian researchers have made a breakthrough in a rare mental condition, aphantasia, that makes people unable to visualise images.
Previously thought to be difficult to diagnose, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have discovered a method for proving and diagnosing the rare mental condition via a person’s eyes’ responsiveness to light.
Those who do not have aphantasia can visualize a bright and dark object, which evokes a visible pupillary reflex of contraction or dilation as it would if they walked out into the sun or into a dark room. Professor Joel Pearson the senior author of the paper publishing the results of the study said in a UNSW media release that this reflex exists in the human eye to optimize the amount of light hitting the retina.
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