juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 12/07/2026Why is mental imagery so closely linked to emotions, as well as affective conditions (e.g. depression) and neurodevelopmental variation (e.g. autism, alexithymia)? In our new Trends Open paper, We propose its due to their overlap in mechanisms driven by insula. 1/2 131
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 16/05/2026Cardiac vagal reactivity predicts visual imagery vividness. This challenges traditional efferent accounts in which autonomic activation is merely a byproduct of imagery; rather, autonomic afferent input shapes visual imagery itself www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...biorxiv.org 031
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialCarli Fine @carlifine.bsky.social · 13/05/2026We are recruiting for a clinical trial to treat #misophonia!👂🎧🧠 The study is in-person in #Brighton, UK. 🎡 Full participant information sheet: sussex.box.com/s/13uqmknkny.... Complete our screener questionnaire to assess eligibility: universityofsussex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... 032
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialJianghao Liu @jianghaoliu.bsky.social · 21/02/2026📢We're thrilled to announce the first-ever #IRCA Conference on #Aphantasia! Call for abstracts is open, deadline: 17 April 2026 sites.google.com/view/irca-co... This 3-day interdisciplinary conference aims to consolidate current knowledge and draw a future plan for aphantasia research. 11810
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 22/04/2026What if aphantasia isn't merely a deficit in visual imagery, but also breakdown in how the brain's predictive systems calibrate each other? New paper. 🧵 1/5 110
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 20/03/2026new study with Yoko Nagai and Hugo Critchley on the link between objective interoceptive sensitivity and mental imagery www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comInteroception predicts mental imagery vividness: exploring a key relationship - Scientific ReportsInteroception, the sense of the internal state of the body, plays a fundamental role in emotional awareness and self-referential processing. Recently, interoception has been linked to the experience o... 020
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 13/03/2026Unexplained pain and affectionate touch — two self-report questions that outperform a 42-item interoception battery in predicting mental health osf.io/preprints/ps... 021
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 12/03/2026Interoceptive Profiling for Predicting of Mental Health: A Person-Centred Approach Rather than asking whether interoception predict mental health across a population, we examined how measures of subjective interoception naturally cluster within individuals 1/4 151
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 18/02/2026The dominant view holds that aphantasics have unconscious imagery. We propose that instead they have sensory precursors: pre-perceptual codes that never get integrated into experience. New integration model unifying attention/interoception explains why: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...sciencedirect.comAn Integration Model of Mental Imagery and Aphantasia: Conceptual Framework, Neuromechanistic Pathways, and Clinical ImplicationsAphantasia, the strong diminution or complete absence of mental imagery, challenges long-standing views of imagery as central to cognition. Competing … 020
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 10/02/2026How did imagery come about in evolution? You can't plan without knowing what you're planning for. That's why interoception is the evolutionary foundation of imagery, and why sensory and interoceptive components are bound during imagery construction. New evolutionary theory: osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 010
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialZiv Ben-Zion, PhD @zivbenzion.bsky.social · 06/12/2025The Two Faces of #PTSD: Fear vs. Emotional Pain. Our new research in Biological Psychiatry @biologicalpsych.bsky.social identifies distinct clinical & neural profiles. AI says no one reads long papers, so we made an infographic!👇 Full Paper (for the insistents😉): doi.org/10.1016/j.bi... 2288
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 06/12/2025New evidence on the role of subjective interoception in congenital aphantasia (and associated autobiographical deficits); with @mmonzel.bsky.social and Yoko Nagai www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comThe role of subjective interoception in autobiographical deficits in aphantasia - Scientific ReportsScientific Reports - The role of subjective interoception in autobiographical deficits in aphantasia 020
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 21/11/2025My group has cog neuro PhD positions available (at the University of Macau). We work on mind-body links, particularly with respect to imagery/aphantasia and mental health. Please get in touch if you are interested! 020
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialKristian Sandberg @krsandberg.bsky.social · 27/10/2025Our N≈500 paper on the neural architecture of mental imagery is out! Fun work with @timokvamme.bsky.social, @juhasilvanto.bsky.social, Massimo Lumaca and many others. 081
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 11/10/2025New study from @timokvamme.bsky.social suggests we may have overlooked a critical brain region in mental imagery research: the insula: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... After decades of research focusing on sensory/frontal/parietal regions, the insula may be just as central to imagery.sciencedirect.comNeural Network Topologies Supporting Individual Variations in Vividness of Visual ImageryVividness of visual imagery varies considerably across individuals, yet its neural underpinnings remain unclear. As emphasized in recent debates, a ke… 030
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 10/10/2025In this preprint we report that childhood trauma is linked to visual imagery deficits. Across imagery spectrum, severe childhood trauma is associated with a 20% decrease in imagery vividness vs low trauma; 4-5x higher prevalence of imagery deficits in severe vs low trauma. osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 000
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 04/10/2025Imagery/aphantasia: all roads lead to insula! New comprehensive model combining attentional and interoceptive views of aphantasia. Was a pleasure to be part of this with @christianoscholz.bsky.social @jianghaoliu.bsky.social @mmonzel.bsky.social @timokvamme.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 030
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 16/09/2025affective-autonomic pathway to acquired aphantasia: appr. 60% of acquired cases of aphantasia have psychogenic origin. In the interoceptive model, affective disorders disrupt the integration of bodily & cognitive signals needed for imagery. work with Yoko Nagai www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...sciencedirect.comAutonomic, Neurodevelopmental, and Early Adversity Correlates of Acquired AphantasiaAphantasia (the inability to voluntarily generate mental imagery) has traditionally been studied as a congenital or neurological condition. However, h… 180
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialSam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · 21/07/2025New from Arnold @visnerd.bsky.social lab: Mental rotation is often regarded as paradigmatic for #mentalimagery. But it turns out people often don't use imagery for mental rotation - & when they do it is often not useful (same viewpoint trials). #visionscience #psychscisky doi.org/10.1016/j.co...doi.orgRedirecting 1326
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 31/07/2025been a fan of @visnerd.bsky.social 's work for 20 years... his new paper is really important as it shows the limitation of Binocular Rivalry as measure of imagery vividness...important implications for aphantasia research; BR may not be objective gold standard www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...sciencedirect.comObjective priming from pre-imagining inputs before binocular rivalry presentations does not predict individual differences in the subjective intensity of imagined experiencesMost people can imagine images that they experience within their mind's eye. However, there are marked individual differences, with some people report… 010
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 30/07/2025Such fascinating work! I also 100% recommend this paper from the same @kerblooee.bsky.social group - the first predictive model of how we distinguish internal and external percepts...explaining imagery, halllucination... great glinical implications academic.oup.com/nc/article/2...academic.oup.comA novel model of divergent predictive perceptionAbstract. Predictive processing theories state that our subjective experience of reality is shaped by a balance of expectations based on previous knowledge 191
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialJanel Le Belle @janellebelle.bsky.social · 27/07/2025*Worth your time to read!* Some experts predict the impact of superhuman AI over the next decade in “AI 2027”, a scenario that represents their best guess about what that might look like very soon & it’s implications for all of us: ai-2027.comai-2027.comAI 2027A research-backed AI scenario forecast. 021
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 25/07/2025Really interesting work! Muraki and Pexman are taking aphantasia research into fascinating new directions! 040
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialEmiko J Muraki @emij.bsky.social · 17/07/2025➡️ Faster processing of motor-linked words in aphantasia suggest that mental simulation is intact even in the absence of conscious mental imagery. 📄 Full article in this Neuropsychologia special issue (doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...) 171
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialAna Chkhaidze @chkhaidze.bsky.social · 15/07/2025Our new preprint explores what people with different visual imagery abilities 'see' during Ganzflicker-induced hallucinations. We used NLP + ML techniques to analyze descriptions from 4,000+ participants. See what we found in @kerblooee.bsky.social's thread 162
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialSam Schwarzkopf @sampendu.bsky.social · 07/07/2025If you have 10-20 minutes (depends on how fast you are), would you please consider doing this online study on #mentalimagery? It contains a survey & an experiment where you look at pictures and you respond what you see: #psychscisky #neuroskyence #visionscience tstbl.co/820-917 43723
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialNatalie Christie Peluso 🧠 @nataliepeluso.com · 11/07/2025Making Sense of Sensation: A model of Interoceptive Attribution and Appraisal with Clinical applications New preprint from @drhannahsavage.bsky.social & @sarahgarf.bsky.social #interoception #neuroskyence 🧠🫀🫁 osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 02110
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialAnimal Flix @animalflix.bsky.social · 03/07/2025The most majestic thing you will see on #bluesky today. 😇 364225073973
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 04/07/2025The insula is often ignored in neuroimaging studies on mental imagery. However, a new study by @timokvamme.bsky.social shows visual imagery is linked (amongst other areas) to more efficient structural connectivity in the right insula osf.io/preprints/ps...osf.ioOSF 000
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Do you have aphantasia? We are running a new study on how individuals with or without imagery associate emotions with different parts of the body - it only takes 15 min! You can take part here: research.sc/participant/... Contact: nurdilaraozata@hotmail.comresearch.scPowered by GorillaMake the world a better place by participating in cutting edge behavioural research. Powered by Gorilla 031
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 30/06/2025Do you have aphantasia? Would you be interested in taking part in a study exploring how we associate emotions with different body parts? It only takes 15 min! You can take part here: research.sc/participant/... contact: nurdilaraozata@hotmail.comresearch.scPowered by GorillaMake the world a better place by participating in cutting edge behavioural research. Powered by Gorilla 000
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 13/06/2025Interoception in aphantasia: imprecise interoceptive signals may prevent prefrontal top-down signals from sufficiently activaing sensory cortices www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Interoception, insula, and agency: a predictive coding account of aphantasiaAphantasia-the inability to consciously experience mental imagery-has emerged as one of the most intriguing phenomena in cognitive psychology and neuroscienc... 073
Reposted by @juhasilvanto.bsky.socialNadine Dijkstra @nadinedijkstra.bsky.social · 05/06/2025I am so excited to share that our paper 'A neural basis for distinguishing imagination from reality' is now published in @cp-neuron.bsky.social! 🧠✨ See thread below! doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...doi.orgRedirecting 818066
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 06/06/2025Interoceptive/insula theory of aphantasia: rather than purely a sensory deficit, aphantasia results from abnormal autonomic signaling and disrupted interoception: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39912831/ Some evidence: osf.io/preprints/ps... www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6... osf.io/preprints/ps...pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govHow Interoception and the Insula Shape Mental Imagery and Aphantasia - PubMedA major question in cognitive neuroscience is understanding the neural basis of mental imagery, particularly in cases of its absence, known as aphantasia. While research in this field has focused on t... 161
juhasilvanto.bsky.social @juhasilvanto.bsky.social · 05/06/20251/ What causes acquired aphantasia? Our new preprint shows links to affective conditions, early life adversity, neurodevelopmental traits, and increased autonomic reactivity, pointing to an affective-autonomic pathway #aphantasia #MentalHealth #interoception 1152