Neuroimaging Studies of Mental Rotation: A Meta-analysis and Review

Zacks, Jeffrey M.

doi:10.1162/jocn.2008.20013

Cited by 599 publications

(493 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…This claim is in line with neuroimaging studies that found motor-related areas to be active during mental rotation, clearly suggesting a functional role of motor processes for such tasks (e.g., Alivisatos & Petrides, 1997;Kosslyn, DiGirolamo, Thompson, & Alpert, 1998; see Zacks, 2008, for a recent metaanalysis). Furthermore, Wexler et al proposed that "visuomotor anticipation is the engine that drives mental rotation" (p. 79).…”

Section: Interactions Of Manual and Mental Rotationssupporting

confidence: 83%

Effective Rotations: Action Effects Determine the Interplay of Mental and Manual Rotations

Janczyk¹,

Pfister²,

Crognale³

et al. 2012

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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The last decades have seen a growing interest in the impact of action on perception and other concurrent cognitive processes. One particularly interesting example is that manual rotation actions facilitate mental rotations in the same direction. The present study extends this research in two fundamental ways. First, Experiment 1 demonstrates that not only manual rotations facilitate mental rotations but that mental rotations also facilitate subsequent manual rotations. Second, Experiments 2 and 3 targeted the mechanisms underlying this interplay. Here, manual steering wheel rotations produced salient visual effects, namely the rotation of either a plane or a horizon in an aviation display. The rotation direction of these visual effects either did or did not correspond to the direction of the manual rotation itself. These experiments clearly demonstrate an impact of sensory action effects: Mental rotations facilitate manual rotations with visual effects of the same direction (as the mental rotation), irrespective of the direction of the manual rotation. These findings highlight the importance of effect anticipation in action planning. As such they support the contentions of ideomotor theory and shed new light on the cognitive source of the interplay between visual imagery and motor control.

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Section: Interactions Of Manual and Mental Rotationssupporting

confidence: 83%

Effective Rotations: Action Effects Determine the Interplay of Mental and Manual Rotations

Janczyk¹,

Pfister²,

Crognale³

et al. 2012

PsycEXTRA Dataset

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“…The use of motor imagery strategies in mental rotation of hands has been corroborated by many authors [e.g., 9,14,23]. Evidence for motor imagery being involved in mental rotation of body parts comes from clinical cases [e.g., 3,4,12,16] and from neuroimaging studies (see [22] for review). Further studies proposed that mental rotation tasks can be solved by different strategies, involving visual imagery or motor imagery [2,11], and that the choice of strategy might depend on the type of stimuli [21] or the instructions [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Does thumb posture influence the mental rotation of hands?

Bläsing

Brugger

Weigelt

et al. 2013

Neuroscience Letters

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The function of thumb posture in mental rotation has not yet been studied intensely, despite its special role in manual action. To investigate if thumb posture modifies relative visual and proprioceptive contributions, we conducted two experiments comprising hand laterality judgement tasks with identical stimuli (left and right hands in palmar and dorsal views presented at four orientations). In half of the stimuli, all digits were extended, whereas in the other half the thumb was flexed into the palm of the hand. In the second experiment, participants' thumbs were taped in the same flexed posture that was displayed in half of the stimuli one hour previous to and throughout the experiment. Results of both experiments revealed effects of orientation, side and view on reaction time, but an effect of stimulus thumb posture occurred only in the second experiment in which participants' thumbs were fixed. In palmar view, stimuli rotated by 90°with fingers pointing toward the participant's midline had shorter reaction times than stimuli rotated (evidentially less comfortably) in the opposite direction. This finding suggests that participants applied motor imagery strategies for palmar but not for dorsal views of the hand, indicating a difference in visual and sensorimotor familiarity. AbstractThe function of thumb posture in mental rotation has not yet been regarded intensely, despite of the specific role of the thumb in manual action. To investigate whether thumb posture would modify the relative visual and proprioceptive contributions, we conducted two experiments with identical stimuli (left and right hands in palmar and dorsal views presented at four orientations) in which participants were asked to give handedness judgements. In half of the stimuli, the thumb was extended like the other digits, in the other half the thumb was flexed into the palm of the hand. In the second experiment, the participant's thumbs were fixed in the same posture as displayed in half of the stimulus pictures; thumbs were taped to the palm of the hands one hour previous to and throughout the experiment. Results of both experiments revealed effects of orientation, side and view on reaction time, but an effect of stimulus thumb posture occurred only in the second experiment in which the participants' thumbs were fixed. Medial-over-lateral advantage as indicator of motor imagery was found only for palmar stimuli, suggesting that participants applied different strategies for the different views of the hand, probably based on different visual and sensorimotor familiarity. IntroductionMental rotation of human body parts, especially hands, has been found to differ essentially from mental rotation of abstract objects [13,17]. Using a handedness paradigm in which participants had to decide if a displayed hand was a right or left one, Parsons [13,14] showed that RTs were not only influenced by the rotation angle of the hand stimulus but also by the implicit awkwardness of the displayed hand position. He concluded that movements performed...

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“…Meta-analyses of fMRI studies implicate PPC activation in a range of executive, working memory, and spatial tasks (Owen et al, 2005;Wager and Smith, 2003;Zacks, 2008) that share as a common denominator the need to manipulate or update actively-maintained visuospatial information (see Wager and Smith, 2003). Presumably, such a function is essential for updating the spatiotemporal representations that situation models consist of (Gernsbacher, 1990;Mason et al, 2006;Morrow et al, 1989;Zwaan and Radvansky, 1998).…”

Section: Dissociable Brain Systems Support the Construction And Maintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural substrates of narrative comprehension and memory

2008

Self Cite

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When reading a narrative, comprehension and retention of information benefit considerably from the use of situation models -coherent representations of the characters, locations, and activities described in the text. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the neural mechanisms supporting situation model processing. Participants read blocks of sentences that were either unrelated to one another or formed coherent narratives. A timecourse-based approach was used to identify regions that differentiated narrative-level comprehension from sentence-level comprehension. Most brain regions that showed modulation of activation during narrative-level comprehension were also modulated to a lesser extent during sentence-level comprehension, suggesting a shared reliance on general coherence-building mechanisms. However, tentative evidence was found for narrativespecific activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Additional analyses identified spatiotemporally distinct neural contributions to situation model processing, with posterior parietal regions supporting situation model construction and frontotemporal regions supporting situation model maintenance. Finally, a set of subsequent memory analyses demonstrated that the boost in comprehension and memory performance observed for coherent materials was attributable to the use of integrative situation models rather than lower-level differences in sentence-level or word-level encoding. These results clarify the functional contributions of distinct brain systems to situation model processing and their mapping onto existing psychological models of narrative comprehension.

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Neuroimaging Studies of Mental Rotation: A Meta-analysis and Review

Cited by 599 publications

References 43 publications

Effective Rotations: Action Effects Determine the Interplay of Mental and Manual Rotations

Effective Rotations: Action Effects Determine the Interplay of Mental and Manual Rotations

Does thumb posture influence the mental rotation of hands?

Neural substrates of narrative comprehension and memory

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