title: Mental own-body and body-part transformations in microgravity.
abstract: The aim of this experiment was to investigate the influence of gravity on the cognitive ability to mentally transform images of bodies or body parts. A total of eight participants were tested in two separate parabolic flight missions. In the main experiment, participants had to make a discrimination judgement (left or right) about pictures of a human figure with one arm outstretched, and pictures of a body part (hand). The stimuli appeared in varying views and orientations. Response times and error rates were measured. In microgravity, the participants showed increased response times overall as well as increased error rates when compared to 1 g for both types of stimuli. Thus, a task that requires the mental transformation of one's own body or body parts becomes more difficult during microgravity. This is in contrast to previous studies showing no effect of microgravity on the mental rotation of abstract 3D objects and to our follow-up case study in which participants applied an object-based mental rotation strategy. Moreover, the analysis of response times suggests that in microgravity body-part stimuli are affected more strongly than body figures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Luzia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Grabherr
authors.forename: Faisal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Karmali
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Indermaur
authors.forename: Sibylle
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Metzler
authors.forename: Fred W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Mast
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012399:Rotation; D013026:Space Flight; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014893:Weightlessness