Because of how vivid their mental imagery is, people with hyperphantasia are also possibly more at risk than others of having intrusive imagery when remembering negative experiences, and of being traumatised by scenes they’ve imagined, says Dr. Zeman. While more research is needed, it’s possible that extremely vivid imagery might also make these people more prone to believing false memories and hallucinations, says Dr. Reeder.
How do you get hyperphantasia?
We don’t fully know how or why there’s so much diversity across the mental imagery spectrum, Dr. Zeman says, but “it probably is partly genetic.” In fact, you’re about 10 times more likely to have aphantasia if your sibling has it, he says. “I suspect the same is true of hyperphantasia, though we haven’t done the arithmetic yet.”
More research is needed, but there is some evidence suggesting that mental imagery abilities can change over time. In one 2022 paper, researchers found that rates of very vivid mental imagery decline over time, suggesting that children are more likely to have hyperphantasia. Plus, it’s definitely possible to lose imagery following a stroke, other brain injuries, or psychiatric conditions, says Dr. Zeman. Dr. Reeder’s hunch is that it’s a “use it or lose it” situation, and that as kids grow up and stop engaging in immersive and imaginative play, they start tuning out their mental imagery, and so that imagery dulls. That said, there haven’t yet been any longitudinal studies of individual mental imagery abilities changing over time, says Dr. Zeman, so we don’t know for sure if and how it changes throughout the lifespan.
Is there a test for hyperphantasia?
Since hyperphantasia is not a clinical condition or disorder, there’s no was to truly “diagnose” it. However, there are two go-to surveys to assess a person’s mental imagery: the Vividness Of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (VVIQ), and the Plymouth Sensory Imagery Questionnaire, both of which can be found online. There’s no standard cut-off for hyperphantasia, says Dr. Zeman, but researchers typically assume anyone with a score of 75 (or higher) out of 80 on the VVIQ have it.
Since these assessments are surveys where you need to self-score, critics say that they are prone to error and bias. Those are valid criticisms, but unfortunately, we don’t yet have any hyperphantasia tests that can objectively and reliably say for sure whether someone has it, says Dr. Zeman.
If you suspect you might, Dr. Reeder also suggests reading about other people’s experiences — perhaps on Reddit or through other online testimonies — and seeing what resonates with you. And think about more than just whether your mental imagery is vivid, she says. When she assesses people, she often asks about their daydreaming habits, whether they get easily immersed in their own internal worlds, and whether they can imagine other senses as well.
And if you feel like your vivid imagery is hard to ignore, Jake recommends trying to work with it rather than pushing it down or away. “I used to have a really hard time falling asleep,” he says, “but then I learned that if I just…imagine myself walking in a wood-scape or something, then it can just naturally feed into my dreams.”
This article originally appeared on SELF.