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Sketchpad Series 

Spatial Navigation and Representations of Spatial Information in Visual Aphantasia

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Zoe Cronin¹ (), Steven Weisberg¹; ¹University of Texas at Arlington

Lower visual imagery vividness (aphantasia) is associated with impaired recall of visual details in autobiographical memories and reduced neural similarity between perception and imagery. People with aphantasia offer a way to investigate navigation without imagery, a neglected research area. In this sketchpad, we propose to evaluate the hypothesis that reduced visual input in aphantasia impairs recall of spatial knowledge via reduced neural similarity of spatial information across imagery and perception. In study 1, participants will learn a campus-like virtual environment and demonstrate knowledge of the locations of 8 landmarks. We predict that those with aphantasia will perform worse on spatial tasks presumed to require visual imagery (pointing to landmarks from an imagined facing direction) compared to those using visual perception. In study 2, participants with knowledge of the University of Texas at Arlington campus will complete verbal (imagery) and pictorial (visually guided) pointing tasks in a 3T MRI scanner. We will extract and average neural activation patterns for each location and facing direction for verbal and pictorial conditions, then compute similarity across conditions within visual scene regions (RSC and PPA) by creating representational dissimilarity matrices and testing cue-invariance of target correlations (i.e., across-task, within spatial feature). If attempted imagery representations lack spatial detail in aphantasia, cross-task correlations should only be significant in those without aphantasia. If navigation ability relates to neural similarity, then accuracy in study 1 should correlate with cross-task decoding. Findings will inform theories on the role of visual cognition in navigation and development of navigation support tools.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision