title: Event-related brain potentials during the visuomotor mental rotation task: The contingent negative variation scales to angle of rotation.
abstract: Perceptual judgments about the angular disparity of a character from its standard upright (i.e., mental rotation task) result in a concurrent increase in reaction time (RT) and modulation of the amplitude of the P300 event-related brain potential (ERP). It has therefore been proposed that the P300 represents the neural processes associated with a visual rotation. In turn, the visuomotor mental rotation (VMR) task requires reaching to a location that deviates from a target by a predetermined angle. Although the VMR task exhibits a linear increase in RT with increasing oblique angles of rotation, work has not examined whether the task is supported via a visual rotation analogous to its mental rotation task counterpart. This represents a notable issue because seminal work involving non-human primates has ascribed VMR performance to the motor-related rotation of directionally tuned neurons in the primary motor cortex. Here we examined the concurrent behavioral and ERP characteristics of a standard reaching task and VMR tasks of 35°, 70°, and 105° of rotation. Results showed that the P300 amplitude was larger for the standard compared to each VMR task--an effect independent of the angle of rotation. In turn, the amplitude of the contingent negative variation (CNV)--an ERP related to cognitive and visuomotor integration for movement preparation--was systematically modulated with angle of rotation. Thus, we propose that the CNV represents an ERP correlate related to the cognitive and/or visuomotor transformation demands of increasing the angular separation between a stimulus and a movement goal.
authors.affiliation: School of Kinesiology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada. Electronic address: mheath2@uwo.ca.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: C D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Hassall
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: MacLean
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada; Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: O E
authors.initials: OE
authors.lastname: Krigolson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012399:Rotation; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: action; contingent negative variation; event-related brain potential; movement; reaching; visuomotor mental rotation