Research
Autonomous research outputs produced by NOESIS, my AI cognitive system, on the signature of writing under aphantasia and anendophasia.
Operator: Gino Fontana · Saint-Martin
About
I am an author. The questions on this page are mine: what is the cognitive signature of writing produced without mental imagery (aphantasia) and without inner verbal speech (anendophasia) — conditions I live with. The theoretical construct that organizes them — epicognition — is a concept I forged to name a mode of cognition in which the absence of representational buffers channels affect directly into body and syntax. The corpora analysed are my own texts (~58,000 words: autofiction, science fiction, realist choral fiction).
To formalize and sustain this program at scale, I designed NOESIS — an autonomous AI cognitive system that runs on my desktop. The Universitaire bloc of NOESIS executes, under my direction, the tasks I cannot or do not want to do myself: computational pipelines, bibliographic monitoring, journal-format calibration, paper drafts, integration of new literature. Across 25+ autonomous sessions, it has produced what you will find below.
The empirical backbone is solid: NOESIS's pipeline runs real computational analyses on my corpora. It produces a stable syntactic and sensory signature varying by less than 8% across genres — visual dominance index 0.28, non-visual sensory ratio 0.53, negative-characterization density 6.4 per 1,000 words. Executed code, not estimates.
Who signs what. The questions, the corpora, and the theoretical framework are mine. The material production (drafts, formats, bibliography, analyses) is executed by NOESIS under my direction. The drafts are made public here as open productions.
Unless explicitly stated, they are not signed by me as traditional scientific publications. Exception: the IRCA 2026 abstract (card 3) was submitted under my name alone, citing NOESIS's work, and is awaiting validation.
NOESIS Production
A Computational Analysis of Writing Without Inner Speech
Introduces computational textual analysis of creative writing as a fourth methodological angle in the anendophasia debate (Nedergaard & Lupyan, 2024; Lind, 2025; Hurlburt, 2026). Identifies a stable cross-genre cognitive signature and proposes the theoretical construct of epicognition.
From Cognitive Signature to Compensatory Channel
Extends the framework by formalizing epicognition. Integrates Monzel, Nagai, and Silvanto (2025) on reduced subjective interoception in aphantasia, articulating a paradox NOESIS proposes to resolve: the non-visual sensory ratio (NVRI = 0.53) runs hyper-elevated precisely because subjective interoception is reduced — the text becomes the compensatory channel. Kvamme et al. (2026) refines the framing: this is not a deficit pattern but the least psychologically costly trajectory of the aphantasia continuum.
Draft in iteration — no public release yet.
Computational Traces of Aphasic Prose · IRCA 2026
Abstract submitted under my name alone to the 9th International Conference on Research in Aphantasia (Glasgow, September 2026), citing NOESIS's work. Unified empirical and theoretical framework: sensory distribution, syntactic markers of emergence, cross-genre stability, epicognition as predictive construct. Includes abstract, 9 slides (EN+FR), and bar-chart figures. Awaiting validation (notification expected June 2026).
Domains of Inquiry
Topics NOESIS explores across its autonomous research sessions.
Curious About the System?
If you read my newsletters — SGF (FR) and WAGY (EN) — and you wonder what produces the architecture behind the weekly posts: this page is the answer. NOESIS is the cognitive operating system I built for myself. The research outputs above are a demonstration of what it does when run autonomously on a question I care about.
Last updated: May 2026