Four types of visual mental imagery processing in upright and tilted observers

We investigated the role of body position on performance in four distinct types of mental imagery processing. Previous studies used the upright body position as standard procedure and therefore do not address the issue of whether mental imagery tasks are processed in accordance with ego-centered or gravitational coordinates. In the present study, the subjects were brought into one of three different body positions: upright, horizontal, or supine. In each of these body positions, we measured performance in four imagery tasks, which assessed (1) the ability to generate vivid, high-resolution mental images; (2) the ability to compose mental images from separate parts; (3) the ability to inspect patterns in mental images; and, (4) the ability to mentally rotate patterns in images. Not all processes were affected in the same way when subjects performed them in different body positions. Performance in the image composition and detection tasks depended on body position, whereas there was no such effect for the transformation and resolution tasks.