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Effects of prolonged weightlessness on mental rotation of three-dimensional objects

Effects of prolonged weightlessness on mental rotation of three-dimensional objects 221 94 94 1 1 Y. Matsakis M. Lipshits V. Gurfinkel A. Berthoz Laboratoire de Physiologie Neurosensorielle du CNRS 15 Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine F-75 006 Paris France Institute of Information Transmission Problems Moscow USSR Abstract Previous experiments have suggested that the analysis of visual images could be a gravity-dependent process. We investigated this hypothesis using a mental rotation paradigm with pictures of three-dimensional objects during a 26-day orbital flight aboard the Soviet MIR station. The analysis of cosmonauts' response times showed that the mental rotation task is not greatly impaired in weightlessness. On the contrary, there are indications of a facilitation as: (1) the average rotation time per degree was shorter inflight than on the ground; (2) this difference seemed to be particularly marked for stimuli calling for roll axis rotations. However several factors may be responsible for this difference which was not obvious in one subject. Further experiments will have to test if this effect is really due to exposure to microgravity. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Experimental Brain Research Springer Journals

Effects of prolonged weightlessness on mental rotation of three-dimensional objects

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References (47)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by Springer-Verlag
Subject
Biomedicine; Neurosciences; Neurology
ISSN
0014-4819
eISSN
1432-1106
DOI
10.1007/BF00230478
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

221 94 94 1 1 Y. Matsakis M. Lipshits V. Gurfinkel A. Berthoz Laboratoire de Physiologie Neurosensorielle du CNRS 15 Rue de l'Ecole de Médecine F-75 006 Paris France Institute of Information Transmission Problems Moscow USSR Abstract Previous experiments have suggested that the analysis of visual images could be a gravity-dependent process. We investigated this hypothesis using a mental rotation paradigm with pictures of three-dimensional objects during a 26-day orbital flight aboard the Soviet MIR station. The analysis of cosmonauts' response times showed that the mental rotation task is not greatly impaired in weightlessness. On the contrary, there are indications of a facilitation as: (1) the average rotation time per degree was shorter inflight than on the ground; (2) this difference seemed to be particularly marked for stimuli calling for roll axis rotations. However several factors may be responsible for this difference which was not obvious in one subject. Further experiments will have to test if this effect is really due to exposure to microgravity.

Journal

Experimental Brain Research – Springer Journals

Published: May 1, 1993

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