The Brain Activation of Two Motor Imagery Strategies in a Mental Rotation Task

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroscience
• Psychology

Background:

• Motor imagery encompasses visual and kinesthetic strategies crucial for mental rotation.
• Previous comparative studies on kinesthetic vs. visual imagery brain mechanisms lack standardized methods.
• Inconsistent stimuli and paradigms hinder effective comparison of these imagery types.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and compare the brain activation patterns associated with kinesthetic and visual imagery during mental rotation tasks.
• To determine the performance differences between kinesthetic and visual imagery strategies.
• To explore the neural underpinnings of strategy preferences in hand lateral judgment tasks.

Main Methods:

• Utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity.
• Employed hand lateral judgment tasks (HLJT) to assess mental rotation.
• Analyzed data from sixty-seven young, right-handed participants with varying strategy preferences.

Main Results:

• Kinesthetic imagery group demonstrated significantly higher accuracy and shorter reaction times than the visual imagery group.
• Broader brain activation observed in the kinesthetic imagery group, including prefrontal, motor, and parietal cortex areas.
• Significantly higher activation levels in frontal eye fields, somatosensory cortex, motor cortex, and parietal cortex for kinesthetic imagery.

Conclusions:

• Kinesthetic imagery appears to possess advantages over visual imagery for egocentric mental transformations.
• The findings highlight distinct neural mechanisms underlying different motor imagery strategies.
• This research provides a foundation for understanding the neural basis of mental rotation strategies.