RUI: fMRI Investigation of the Role of Motor Processes in Mental Rotation

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Mental rotation enables participation in a variety of spatial reasoning activities, from solving geometry problems to reading maps to learning how to dance. Much of the empirical work on mental rotation in the field of cognitive psychology has focused on mental rotation of objects. However, within the last few decades, researchers have begun to examine other classes of mental rotation, including mental rotation of body parts and one's own body. Researchers also have begun using neuroimaging techniques to explore whether these different classes of mental transformations are supported by unique neural mechanisms. One contentious finding within the cognitive neuroscience literature is that some classes of mental rotation have been shown to activate low-level motor areas of the brain, while others have not. For example, researchers have found activation in primary motor and premotor regions in some imagined object rotation tasks, presumably because such tasks allow people to anticipate what they would see if they had manipulated a physical object. In contrast, despite its obvious link to body movement, the task of mental rotation of one's own body has been shown to elicit no low-level motor activation. With support from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Maryjane Wraga's research focuses on these questions by examining the motor processing within a wider range of mental rotation tasks than previously has been studied. The research is being conducted using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which will allow for direct comparisons of specific brain regions of interest across experimental conditions. The broader impacts of this project are a greater understanding of the neural processes underlying the widely used skill of mental rotation. The project will provide opportunities for undergraduate women at Smith College to become involved in the field of cognitive neuroscience. Students will gain hands-on experience in every aspect of fMRI experimentation, from designing and programming studies, to running participants in the fMRI scanner, to analyzing and interpreting results. Such opportunities will facilitate participation of an underrepresented group within the field of cognitive neuroscience.