Psychological Development and Education ›› 2019, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (3): 376-384.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2019.03.16

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The Cognitive and Neural Mechanism of Body-part Mental Rotation

CHEN Jialing, HU Qingfen   

  1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875
  • Published:2019-06-19

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Abstract: Apart from the classical mental rotation task of abstract figures or letters, there is another kind of mental rotation task using hand, foot or other body part images as the stimuli. In the mental rotation of body parts, subjects usually imagine their own body rotating, which is affected by their current postures and biomechanical constraints. In the mental rotation of objects, subjects often imagine stimuli rotating as external objects. Parietal lobe is involved in both types of mental rotation, while the activation of motor-related cortex is mostly found in body-part mental rotation. Discussions concerning how the relationship between mental rotation and physical movement of the body part develops during childhood has not yet come to a conclusion. Future research needs to continue to explore whether the influence of biomechanical constraints on body-part mental rotation is strenghened or weakened as the age increases. The automatical recognition of body images and the plasticity of body-part mental rotation are also issues that can be further explored in the future. Further understanding of body-part mental rotation is also helpful to the application of this task in clinical diagnosis and treatment, as well as training and selection of athletes and pilots.

Key words: mental rotation, body parts, mental imagery, motor imagery

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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