Parietal magnetic stimulation delays visuomotor mental rotation at increased processing demands.

Full Abstract

Visuomotor rotation (VMR) is a variant of the classic mental rotation paradigm. Subjects perform a center-out arm reaching movement, with the instruction to point clockwise or anticlockwise away from the direction of a reaction signal by a prespecified amount. Like classic mental rotation (MR) tasks, there is a linear relationship between reaction time (RT) and required angle of rotation (angular disparity). Although functional imaging studies have consistently demonstrated parietal activations centered around the intraparietal sulcus during MR tasks, the involvement of parietal cortex in VMR has not been investigated. The aim of the present experiments was to test in human subjects whether VMR also involves activity in parietal areas. We used short trains of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to produce a temporary "virtual lesion" of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) around the intraparietal sulcus during the reaction period of a VMR task. Four pulses of 20-Hz rTMS were applied to the left PPC, right PPC, or vertex (control condition) 100 ms after the presentation of an instruction cue. Reaction times (RTs) were evenly prolonged by right or left parietal TMS compared with vertex stimulation, but only for large angles of rotation, and without affecting the spatial accuracy of the final response. A control experiment showed that parietal rTMS did not impair visual perception or the ability to judge the size of visual angles. The data thus provide evidence for bilateral involvement of the PPC in VMR that increases with processing demands.

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Author information

Author/s: Bestmann, S (S); Thilo, K V (KV); Sauner, D (D); Siebner, H R (HR); Rothwell, J C (JC);

Affiliation: Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College of London, Queen Square, WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: NeuroImage (Neuroimage), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Nov; vol 17 (issue 3) : pp 1512-20

Dates: Created 2002/11/04; Completed 2003/02/13; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12414290, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Analysis of Variance
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping
Female
Humans
Imagination - physiology

Imagination - physiology
Magnetics
Male
Orientation - physiology
Parietal Lobe - physiology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Reaction Time - physiology

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