title: Effects of strategies on mental rotation and hemispheric lateralization: neuropsychological evidence.
abstract: We can predict how an object would look if we were to see it from different viewpoints by imagining its rotation. This essential human ability, called mental rotation (MR), guides individuals' actions by constantly updating their environmental consequences. It is, however, still under debate whether the way in which our brain accomplishes this operation is determined by the type of stimulus or rather by a mental strategy. Here we present neuropsychological evidence sustaining the view that what matters is the type of strategy adopted in MR. Thus, independently of the type of stimulus, patients with left hemisphere lesions showed a selective deficit in MR as a consequence of their manual activity, whereas patients with right hemisphere lesions were found impaired in MR by means of a visual strategy. We conclude that MR is achieved by recruiting different strategies, implicitly triggered or prompted at will, each sustained by a unilateral brain network.
authors.affiliation: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tomasino
authors.forename: Raffaella I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Rumiati
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012399:Rotation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*