Nature vs Nurture?

Where does aphantasia come from? Well, there are currently two known ways to get it: one can be born with aphantasia, also known as having congenital aphantasia, or, one can suddenly gain aphantasia through some incident, known as acquired aphantasia. This could be as a result of a head injury, or perhaps even certain high impact diseases such as long COVID. Congenital aphantasia seems to be the more prevalent type, and is explored more often in the scientific literature.

While those with congenital and acquired aphantasia may undergo the same lack of visualization, their experiences with aphantasia will vastly differ. For people who have been born with aphantasia, it is all they have known. They have nothing to compare it to, no real sense of what they are missing out on. Their brains also developed with aphantasia, which allowed them to adapt to the condition by unconsciously finding unique ways to do tasks that are typically done with visualization. While when they learn of their condition some might want a "cure" for it, aphantasia isn't generally actively distressing. Research into this type of aphantasia therefore has been more to further our understanding of the brain and its workings than to find a way to restore visualization.