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Abstract:
Recent behavioral studies have shown that imagined rotations
of the self are performed differently than imagined rotations of
objects (e.g., Wraga, Creem, & Proffitt, 2000). The current
study investigated whether such findings are attributable to
differences in the neural mechanisms underlying each spatial
transformation. We compared performance on imagined self- and
object rotations within-subjects using identical stimuli in each
task. Participants viewed depictions of single three-dimensional
Shepard-Metzler objects situated within a sphere. A T-shaped prompt
appeared outside of the sphere at different locations across
trials. In the Object task, participants imagined rotating the
object so that one of its ends was aligned with the prompt. They
then judged whether a specified part of the object was visible in
its new orientation. In the Viewer task, they imagined rotating
themselves to the location of the T-prompt, and then made a similar
judgment of the object's appearance from the new viewpoint.
Activation in both tasks was compared to respective baseline
conditions in which identical judgments were made without
rotation.
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