"No equation precedes the pain. The body does not model the wound of the Other; it transduces it. No mental simulation is required when the self is not a mirror, but a conductor." I’ve published a new research paper examining the structural dissociation between empathy, moral valuation, and simulation-based models of social cognition. https://open.substack.com/pub/cristinagherghel/p/empathy-without-mental-imagery-why?r=6bmg7x&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true Open access on Zenodo. #Empathy #Aphantasia #MentalImagery #CognitiveScience #PhilosophyOfMind #Neuroscience

What if a key feature of your mind—like your inability to visualize—wasn’t a random glitch, but a signature? Not a bug, but an autograph? For decades, aphantasia—the inability to generate voluntary mental imagery—has been framed in two ways. It’s seen as a congenital trait, a neurological variation you’re simply born with. Or it’s acquired, lost after a brain injury or trauma. Both views see it as a state of the hardware: either it was born that way, or it was damaged.