title: Spatiotemporal differences of brain activation between internal and external strategies in mental rotation: A behavioral and ERD/ERS study.
abstract: Subjects may voluntarily implement an internal or external strategy during mental rotation (MR) task. However, few studies have reported the spatiotemporal differences of brain activation between the two MR strategies. This study aims to compare the two strategies from the perspective of behavioral performance and spatiotemporal brain activations in each cognitive sub-stage using EEG measurements. Both the internal (IN) and external (EX) groups showed a significant 'angle effect' on reaction time (RT) and accuracy (ACC). However, a smaller increase of RT with rotation angle was observed in the EX group. Event-related (de)synchronization in the beta band revealed similar temporal patterns of brain activation in the two groups, but with a stronger activation in the MR sub-stage in the EX group. We speculate that MR of 3D abstract objects is easier when an external strategy is used, and would be promoted by an additional visual-spatial process involving the parietal-occipital areas. Our results suggested that the differences between the two strategies were mainly induced by main MR rather than other cognitive processes.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lyu
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Hongzhou
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: stong@sjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shanbao
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tong
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D001611:Beta Rhythm; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D058407:Electroencephalography Phase Synchronization; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D011897:Random Allocation; D012399:Rotation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Event-related (de)synchronization (ERD/ERS); Mental rotation; Strategies