Abstract
Mental rotation is among the most widely studied visuospatial skills in humans. The processes involved in mental rotation have been described as analogous to seeing an object physically rotate. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging of the whole brain and localized motion-sensitive hV5/MT+ to compare brain activation for stimuli when they were mentally or visually rotated. The results provided clear evidence for activation in hV5/MT+ during both mental and visual rotation of figures, with increased activation for larger rotations. Combined with the overall similarities between mental and visual rotation in this study, these results suggest that mental rotation recruits many of the same neural substrates as observing motion.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 323-332 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2006 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Behavioral Neuroscience