Prosopagnosia and developmental coordination disorder are highly prevalent in aphantasia: evidence for a shared neurodivergent phenotype

Developmental aphantasia is characterised by an absence of visual mental imagery in approximately one to nine percent of the population. It is little known about across society, although some of the associated challenges are thought to be extremely problematic in daily life, education and some medical situations. The taxonomic status of developmental aphantasia, the lifelong absence of mental visual imagery, remains the subject of intense debate. We therefore investigated whether aphantasia aligns with the hallmark features of multifactorial neurodivergences (i.e., developmental coordination disorder), such as elevated co-occurrences and facial identification impairments. Importantly, across three complementary studies, we confirm aphantasia is not an isolated cognitive variant, but part of a broader neurodivergent phenotype. First, we demonstrate an elevated co-occurrence (i.e., 14-36% vs. 2-3% general population prevalence) of developmental prosopagnosia (lifelong face identification impairments) in aphantasia, driven by impairments in familiar face identification. In a second study, we show qualitatively similar patterns of facial identification deficits across aphantasia and developmental coordination disorder, revealing a shared transdiagnostic cognitive signature. The final study confirms a bidirectional link by identifying a fourfold increase of aphantasia’s co-occurrence within developmental prosopagnosia (16% vs. 4% general population). This converging prevalence, cross-condition, and identity-processing evidence demonstrates aphantasia’s classification as a form of neurodivergence. Given its elevated risk in other neurodevelopmental populations, clinicians and educators should view aphantasia as an important cue for broader neurodivergence assessment. This will ensure appropriate support is provided to individuals with such co-occurrences, as well as their families.