The effects of potent psychedelics on the lack of mental visual ability (aphantasia).

What is it about?

In a recent article in this journal, Dos Santos et al. (2018) report a case of ayahuasca use by a man with aphantasia, whereby he had no mental visual imagery (the ability to form pictures in one's mind). This account is the first such report of the use of a psychedelic agent by someone with aphantasia. Surprisingly, the case, SE, reported an improvement in their visual imagery following one particular instance of ayahuasca use. The current paper, in support of Dos Santos et al.’s (2018) favored psychological explanation for improvement and their suggestion that SE’s aphantasia was acquired rather than congenital, this letter reports on a case study of an individual with apparent congenital aphantasia who has experienced no visual imagery, despite reported having excessively smoked N,Ndimethyltryptamine. It is proposed that the theoretical distinction between acquired and congenital aphantasia be further explored with regard to the use of psychedelics. In addition, further research with psychedelics should include self-report measures that can index aphantasia, such as the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire, as well as behavioral tasks, such as those measuring binocular rivalry.

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Why is it important?

This paper is the the second reported case study of someone with aphantasia that has taken strong psychedelic substances, but in contrast to the first case, this case study did not find any change in their aphantasia despite using the potent psychedelic DMT more than 1000 times. This case therefore is the first to contrast with the other case study and indicates the likely difference between acquired (and treatable) aphantasia and congenital (and likely untreatable) aphantasia.