Gender Differences in Brain Activation on a Mental Rotation Task

Gender differences are one of the main topics in mental rotation research. This paper focuses on the influence of the performance factor task complexity by using two versions of the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Some 300 participants completed the test without time constraints, either in the regular version or with a complexity reducing template creating successive two-alternative forced-choice tasks. Results showed that the complexity manipulation did not affect the gender differences at all. These results were supported by a sufficient power to detect medium effects. Although performance factors seem to play a role in solving mental rotation problems, we conclude that the variation of task complexity as realized in the present study did not.

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Individual Differences in Mental Rotation

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000184 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 60 (3) ◽

pp. 164-171 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Peter Khooshabeh ◽

Mary Hegarty ◽

Thomas F. Shipley

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Response Times ◽

Task Demands ◽

Mental Rotation Task ◽

Imagery Ability ◽

Alternative Strategies

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that imagery ability and figural complexity interact to affect the choice of mental rotation strategies. Participants performed the Shepard and Metzler (1971) mental rotation task. On half of the trials, the 3-D figures were manipulated to create “fragmented” figures, with some cubes missing. Good imagers were less accurate and had longer response times on fragmented figures than on complete figures. Poor imagers performed similarly on fragmented and complete figures. These results suggest that good imagers use holistic mental rotation strategies by default, but switch to alternative strategies depending on task demands, whereas poor imagers are less flexible and use piecemeal strategies regardless of the task demands.

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Item Types, Cognitive Strategies, and Gender Differences in Mental Rotation

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e520602012-461 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

Randi A. Doyle ◽

Daniel Voyer

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Cognitive Strategies ◽

And Gender ◽

Item Types

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On gender differences in mental rotation processing speed

Learning and Individual Differences ◽

10.1016/j.lindif.2013.10.003 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 29 ◽

pp. 8-17 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Rudolf Debelak ◽

Georg Gittler ◽

Martin Arendasy

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Processing Speed

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Neuroimaging correlates of insight in obsessive compulsive disorder: A fMRI study

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2017.01.344 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 41 (S1) ◽

pp. S409-S409

Author(s):

A. Gadad ◽

D.Y.C.J. Reddy ◽

D.G. Venkatasubramanian ◽

D.J. C.N

Keyword(s):

Mental Rotation ◽

Negative Correlation ◽

Mental Rotation Task ◽

Healthy Controls ◽

Inferior Parietal Lobule ◽

Good Insight ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Accuracy Ratio ◽

Parietal Lobule ◽

Medial Frontal Gyrus

Aim of the studyTo study the neural substrates of insight in OCD by comparing patients with good insight, patients with poor insight and matched healthy controls using functional MRI.MethodologySubjects were recruited from among patients attending OCD clinic, adult psychiatry services and psychiatry ward inpatients of National Institute of Mental Health And Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. They were further divided into ‘good insight’ (n = 30) and ‘poor insight’ (n = 14) using Brown's assessment of belief's scale. Control subjects (n = 30) were recruited from consenting volunteers. 3 T MRI was used mental rotation task was paradigm used for fMRI and analysis was done by SPM 8.ResultsPoor insight patients and good insight patients comparison revealed differential activation in left superior/medial frontal gyrus (corresponding to the DLPFC). A negative correlation between BABS score and activation of right inferior parietal lobule. Mental rotation task behavioural data results: OCD patients as a group had significantly lower accuracy compared to healthy controls. Poor insight group had significantly decreased accuracy ratio compared to good insight group and healthy controls. A negative correlation was noted between BABS score and accuracy ratio, indicating that poorer the insight, greater the errors during the active task.ConclusionInsight has been important prognostic factor in OCD. Poor insight patients had specific deficits in left medial frontal gyrus and right inferior parietal lobule as compared to good insight patients and healthy controls. Together, these indicate that insight has a strong neurobiological underpinning in OCD.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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Mental Rotation Meets the Motion Aftereffect: The Role of hV5/MT+ in Visual Mental Imagery

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2010.21525 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (6) ◽

pp. 1395-1404 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Ruth Seurinck ◽

Floris P. de Lange ◽

Erik Achten ◽

Guy Vingerhoets

Keyword(s):

Mental Rotation ◽

Mental Imagery ◽

Parietal Cortex ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽

Visual Motion ◽

Motion Aftereffect ◽

Mental Rotation Task ◽

Behavioral Performance ◽

Visual Mental Imagery

A growing number of studies show that visual mental imagery recruits the same brain areas as visual perception. Although the necessity of hV5/MT+ for motion perception has been revealed by means of TMS, its relevance for motion imagery remains unclear. We induced a direction-selective adaptation in hV5/MT+ by means of an MAE while subjects performed a mental rotation task that elicits imagined motion. We concurrently measured behavioral performance and neural activity with fMRI, enabling us to directly assess the effect of a perturbation of hV5/MT+ on other cortical areas involved in the mental rotation task. The activity in hV5/MT+ increased as more mental rotation was required, and the perturbation of hV5/MT+ affected behavioral performance as well as the neural activity in this area. Moreover, several regions in the posterior parietal cortex were also affected by this perturbation. Our results show that hV5/MT+ is required for imagined visual motion and engages in an interaction with parietal cortex during this cognitive process.

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