This simple apple test explains the spectrum of imagination

Aphantasia, hyperphantasia or somewhere in the middle?

The time machine to the future isn’t chrome-plated or DeLorean-shaped. It’s your brain, powered by your imagination.

These are the engines we use to chart the future, but the way they function varies wildly from person to person. So wildly, in fact, that you might be astonished at how different your experience is from mine.

I’ve long been fascinated by how people imagine – and more specifically, what they see when they do. For me, visualising something in my mind’s eye is critical – a prerequisite for imagining, creating, and building ideas. But that’s not true for everyone.

Visual imagination exists on a sliding scale. At one end is aphantasia, where someone can’t create mental images. At the other is hyperphantasia, where mental images are so vivid they rival reality.

I like how Professor Adam Zeman, a cognitive neuroscientist who studies aphantasia at the University of Exeter, describes the two, as “the absence and superabundance of imagery.”

Most people fall somewhere in between these extremes, but a small percentage – 1 to 5% for aphantasia and 3 to 10% for hyperphantasia – experience the outer edges.

Curious where you fall on this spectrum? Try this simple test: imagine an apple.

Do you see an abstract idea with no shape, a faint outline, a greyscale shape, a realist-looking apple or an image so vivid you can almost taste its crisp sweetness?

Take a look at the diagram below and see which apple matches your mind’s eye.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Or, if you’ve got time for a more rigorous and scientifically-backed tested, take the questionnaire on the Aphantastia Network.

For those with aphantasia, the apple isn’t visualised in their mind’s eye, their experience looks like number 5. For hyperphantasics like me, the apple is clear, vivid and almost tangible, like the apple at number 1.

My mental images can be so lifelike they verge on overwhelming. I’ve long assumed this vivid imagination explains my struggles with anxiety over the years, but I’ve also considered it a gift for creativity – a sign of “more imagination.”

Turns out, I was only half right. “Lack of imagery does not imply lack of imagination,” Professor Zeman explains.

In fact, many artists and creatives with aphantasia produce extraordinary work. Their lack of visual imagery might even inspire unique approaches to self-expression.

For hyperphantasics, however, there is often a trade-off, one I suspected: heightened emotional intensity.

It tracks. If you can vividly imagine wonderful, brilliant things with clarity and vibrance, you can also vividly imagine the terrifying and distressing. Experts believe that aphantasia, in contrast, may act as a buffer, offering some protection when it comes to mental health.

There are other intriguing differences at either end of the imagination spectrum. Those with aphantasia may not visualise anything in their mind’s eye, yet they can dream visually. Professor Zeman’s research also shows they’re more likely to work in scientific or technical fields.

We’re still in the early days of understanding how these styles of imagination influence wellbeing, memory, and behaviour. But for now, one thing is clear: there’s no single way to imagine.

Imagination, like creativity itself, takes many forms. Whether your mind’s eye is blank or bursting with colour and imagery, both aphantasia and hyperphantasia have their unique strengths and challenges.

No matter where you fall on the spectrum, you have the capacity to dream, envision and create a future.