TY - JOUR
T1 - Cerebellar contribution to mental rotation
T2 - A cTBS study
AU - Picazio, Silvia
AU - Oliveri, Massimiliano
AU - Koch, Giacomo
AU - Caltagirone, Carlo
AU - Petrosini, Laura
PY - 2013/12
Y1 - 2013/12
N2 - A cerebellar role in spatial information processing has been advanced even in the absence of physical manipulation, as occurring in mental rotation. The present study was aimed at investigating the specific involvement of left and right cerebellar hemispheres in two tasks of mental rotation.We used continuous theta burst stimulation to downregulate cerebellar hemisphere excitability in healthy adult subjects performing two mental rotation tasks: an Embodied Mental Rotation (EMR) task, entailing an egocentric strategy, and an Abstract Mental Rotation (AMR) task entailing an allocentric strategy. Following downregulation of left cerebellar hemisphere, reaction times were slower in comparison to sham stimulation in both EMR and AMR tasks. Conversely, identical reaction times were obtained in both tasks following right cerebellar hemisphere and sham stimulations. No effect of cerebellar stimulation side was found on response accuracy. The present findings document a specialization of the left cerebellar hemisphere in mental rotation regardless of the kind of stimulus to be rotated.
AB - A cerebellar role in spatial information processing has been advanced even in the absence of physical manipulation, as occurring in mental rotation. The present study was aimed at investigating the specific involvement of left and right cerebellar hemispheres in two tasks of mental rotation.We used continuous theta burst stimulation to downregulate cerebellar hemisphere excitability in healthy adult subjects performing two mental rotation tasks: an Embodied Mental Rotation (EMR) task, entailing an egocentric strategy, and an Abstract Mental Rotation (AMR) task entailing an allocentric strategy. Following downregulation of left cerebellar hemisphere, reaction times were slower in comparison to sham stimulation in both EMR and AMR tasks. Conversely, identical reaction times were obtained in both tasks following right cerebellar hemisphere and sham stimulations. No effect of cerebellar stimulation side was found on response accuracy. The present findings document a specialization of the left cerebellar hemisphere in mental rotation regardless of the kind of stimulus to be rotated.
KW - Allocentric-egocentric strategy
KW - Cerebellum
KW - CTBS
KW - Mental rotation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84892446374&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84892446374&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12311-013-0494-7
DO - 10.1007/s12311-013-0494-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 23771602
AN - SCOPUS:84892446374
SN - 1473-4222
VL - 12
SP - 856
EP - 861
JO - Cerebellum
JF - Cerebellum
IS - 6
ER -