Congenital lack and extraordinary ability in object and spatial imagery: An investigation on sub-types of aphantasia and hyperphantasia

• The congenital lack of imagery affects selectively spatial and object processing. • In spatial aphantasia there are visuo-spatial imagery and navigational difficulties. • Object aphantasia affects imagery of objects, events, faces, and sense of direction. • Associative involuntary visual imagery is spared in aphantasia. • There are two kinds of exceptional imagery ability: object and spatial hyperphantasia. Studies that have shown a distinction between object and spatial imagery suggest more than one type of aphantasia and hyperphantasia, yet this has not been systematically investigated in studies on imagery ability extremes. Also, if the involuntary imagery is preserved in aphantasia and how this condition affects other skills is not fully clear. We collected data on spatial and object imagery, retrospective, and prospective memory, face recognition, and sense of direction (SOD), suggesting a distinction between two subtypes of aphantasia/hyperphantasia. S patial aphantasia is associated with difficulties in visuo-spatial mental imagery and SOD. Instead, in object aphantasia there are difficulties in imaging single items and events — with no mental visualization of objects, out-of-focus, and black-and-white mental images more frequent than expected — in SOD and face recognition. Furthermore, associative involuntary imagery can be spared in aphantasia. The opposite pattern of performance was found in spatial and object hyperphantasia.