Mental rotation of anthropoid hands: a chronometric study

Gawryszewski, Luiz G.; Silva-dos-Santos, C.F.; Santos-Silva, J.C.; Lameira, Allan Pablo; Pereira, Antônio

doi:10.1590/s0100-879x2007000300013

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…However identity-related effects have not been reported in previous mental rotation studies that compared hands-only and hands-on-body [e.g. 18], or examined only mental rotation of hands-only [61], and as such it is unlikely that the target hands' identity might have a role in the bodily context effects we report. Furthermore, the size of the target hand has not been considered crucial by several studies that compared the mental rotation of hands-only, hands-on-body, and objects [30], [31], [34], [36].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Context and Posture Affect Mental Imagery of Hands

et al. 2012

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Different visual stimuli have been shown to recruit different mental imagery strategies. However the role of specific visual stimuli properties related to body context and posture in mental imagery is still under debate. Aiming to dissociate the behavioural correlates of mental processing of visual stimuli characterized by different body context, in the present study we investigated whether the mental rotation of stimuli showing either hands as attached to a body (hands-on-body) or not (hands-only), would be based on different mechanisms. We further examined the effects of postural changes on the mental rotation of both stimuli. Thirty healthy volunteers verbally judged the laterality of rotated hands-only and hands-on-body stimuli presented from the dorsum- or the palm-view, while positioning their hands on their knees (front postural condition) or behind their back (back postural condition). Mental rotation of hands-only, but not of hands-on-body, was modulated by the stimulus view and orientation. Additionally, only the hands-only stimuli were mentally rotated at different speeds according to the postural conditions. This indicates that different stimulus-related mechanisms are recruited in mental rotation by changing the bodily context in which a particular body part is presented. The present data suggest that, with respect to hands-only, mental rotation of hands-on-body is less dependent on biomechanical constraints and proprioceptive input. We interpret our results as evidence for preferential processing of visual- rather than kinesthetic-based mechanisms during mental transformation of hands-on-body and hands-only, respectively.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body Context and Posture Affect Mental Imagery of Hands

et al. 2012

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“…Moreover, it has also been used for analyzing differences in brain processing of external objects and body parts (Gawryszewski, Silva-dos-Santos, Santos-Silva, Lameira, & Pereira, 2007). Since the actual movement towards a hand drawing located in the vertical plane are biomechanically diverse than the movement aimed at a hand drawing located in the horizontal plane, due mostly to the differential activation of proximal muscles, we wondered whether the mental rotations corresponding to these movements would also be different, even if the stimulus was actually the same in both cases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recognition of hand shape drawings on vertical and horizontal display.

Lameira¹,

Guimaraes-Silva²,

Werneck-Galvão³

et al. 2008

Psychology & Neuroscience

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The visual recognition of body parts activates somato-motor representations in the brain. In the present study, we investigate the influence of the plane in which hand drawings are displayed (Vertical or Horizontal) on mental rotations evoked by a handedness recognition task. Sixteen right-handed volunteers participated in an experiment where the task was to evaluate the handedness of drawings of the human hand presented in different perspectives and orientations while the Manual Reaction Time (MRT) was measured. For eight volunteers, the hand drawings were displayed on a vertical screen monitor, while for the remainder a mirror was employed and the same drawings appeared on the horizontal plan. Our main finding was that there are no differences in MRTs among the drawings displayed vertically or horizontally, with some exceptions. However, the MRTs were longer when the hands in the drawings assumed configurations that were more awkward to perform using real movements. These results show that the implicit movements involved with handedness recognition are mainly dependent on biomechanical constraints for distal (hand), but not proximal (shoulder) movements.

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“…There is ample evidence showing that visual information about ordinary objects and visual information about parts of the human body are relatively segregated in different pathways, with specialized cortical areas devoted to the processing of information related to each category (Downing et al, 2001; Parsons, 2003; Zacks et al, 2003; Urgesi et al, 2007). In particular, information about the body is processed in areas of the mirror neuron system (MNS), whose neurons are active both during the execution and the observation of a movement (see Gallese et al, 1996; Rizzolatti and Craighero, 2004; Gawryszewski et al, 2007). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hand posture effects on handedness recognition as revealed by the Simon effect

Lameira

Gawryszewski

Silva

et al. 2009

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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We investigated the influence of hand posture in handedness recognition, while varying the spatial correspondence between stimulus and response in a modified Simon task. Drawings of the left and right hands were displayed either in a back or palm view while participants discriminated stimulus handedness by pressing either a left or right key with their hands resting either in a prone or supine posture. As a control, subjects performed a regular Simon task using simple geometric shapes as stimuli. Results showed that when hands were in a prone posture, the spatially corresponding trials (i.e., stimulus and response located on the same side) were faster than the non-corresponding trials (i.e., stimulus and response on opposite sides). In contrast, for the supine posture, there was no difference between corresponding and non-corresponding trials. Control experiments with the regular Simon task showed that the posture of the responding hand had no influence on performance. When the stimulus is the drawing of a hand, however, the posture of the responding hand affects the spatial correspondence effect because response location is coded based on multiple reference points, including the body of the hand.

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Mental rotation of anthropoid hands: a chronometric study

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

Body Context and Posture Affect Mental Imagery of Hands

Body Context and Posture Affect Mental Imagery of Hands

Recognition of hand shape drawings on vertical and horizontal display.

Hand posture effects on handedness recognition as revealed by the Simon effect

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