A topographic electrophysiologic study of mental rotation.
Mental rotation is a task performed when subjects are requested to determine whether two stimuli presented in turn have the same shape (congruency) or a mirror-image shape (incongruency) regardless of any difference in orientation. We compared event-related potentials during mental rotation tasks with narrow and wide angular disparities between the two stimuli to identify electrophysiologic correlates of mental rotation. When angular disparity was wide, a prominent negative component arose 438 ms after the second stimulus. A statistically significant difference detected between amplitudes of the negative components under narrow- and wide-angle conditions was maximal in the right parietal region, suggesting that processing of mental rotation is a right parietal dominant function.
Yoshino
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A
Laboratory of Psychophysiology, Department of Psychiatry, National Defense Medical College, 3-2 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Japan. aihide.ndmc.ac.jp
Inoue
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M
Suzuki
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A
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D005556:Form Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012399:Rotation; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology