Effect of degree and direction of rotation in egocentric mental rotation of hand: an event-related potential study

We explored the neural mechanisms of mental rotation of hand, which may invoke a mental transformation of viewer's own hands. It was found that, when a hand picture was presented at an orientation rotated from the upright orientation, participants' performance in making left or right hand...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNeuroreport Vol. 20; no. 2; p. 180
Main Authors Tao, Weidong, Liu, Qiang, Huang, Xiting, Tao, Xiaoli, Yan, Jingjiang, Teeter, Christopher J, Li, Hong, Sun, Hong-Jin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England 28.01.2009
Subjects
Adolescent
Analysis of Variance
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials
Female
Hand
Humans
Imagination - physiology
Kinesis
Male
Orientation
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Psychomotor Performance
Reaction Time
Rotation
Young Adult
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Summary:We explored the neural mechanisms of mental rotation of hand, which may invoke a mental transformation of viewer's own hands. It was found that, when a hand picture was presented at an orientation rotated from the upright orientation, participants' performance in making left or right hand judgment was affected by the degree and direction of rotation, with the direction effect being implicated as the evidence for egocentric mental rotation. Our event-related potentials measure supported the idea that amplitude modulation in the parietal cortex is a psychophysiological marker of the mental rotation of hand. Furthermore, the rotation-direction-dependent modulation of a positive wave was identified as possible neural correlate for the egocentric nature of such mental rotation.
ISSN:1473-558X
DOI:10.1097/WNR.0b013e32831c510a