Autism and aphantasia: Investigating the presence of a specific cognitive profile through case studies.

Autism is often associated with “thinking in pictures,” involving a more frequent use of mental imagery compared to neurotypical individuals. However, aphantasia – the absence of voluntary mentale Imagery – has also been reported as more prevalent in autism. To further investigate this apparent paradox, the present study aims to assess the presence of aphantasia and its specific characteristics in two groups: autistic and non-autistic individuals.

A total of 85 adults (43 autistic, 42 non-autistic) completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), the Object-Spatial Imagery and Verbal Questionnaire (OSIVQ), the Mental Rotation Test, and the Visual Pattern Test. The autistic group reported lower verbal abilities and demonstrated superior performance in visual pattern retention. No significant differences were observed between groups regarding imagery vividness. Within the sample, six participants (three autistic, three non-autistic) met the criteria for aphantasia, defined as a VVIQ score below 32. The cognitive profiles of the 6 individuals with aphantasia were analyzed across tasks. While spatial imagery abilities were preserved in some aphantasic participants, this was not consistent across all cases. Non-autistic individuals with aphantasia exhibited enhanced verbal abilities relative to their reference group – a pattern not observed among autistic participants with aphantasia.Our study did not replicate previous findings indicating a higher prevalence of aphantasia among autistic individuals, nor did it reveal a distinct cognitive profile within the autistic group. Nevertheless, this exploratory work suggests that different types of compensatory mechanisms may be involved in response to the absence of mental imagery in autistic versus non-autistic individuals.