Analysis of cerebral blood flow state during a mental rotation task to assess spatial perception ability

Abstract

Spatial recognition is the ability to quickly and accurately grasp the position, posture, direction, size, shape, spacing, speed, etc. of objects in three-dimensional space, and is said to be established through the cooperation of multiple sensory organs such as vision and hearing, and controlled by the right brain. Currently, paper tests such as MRT and MCT are the most common methods for measuring spatial recognition ability. Although measurement methods and learning systems using AR and VR have also been proposed, objective evaluation indices have yet to be established. Therefore, it is considered necessary to measure and analyze the state of brain activity during spatial recognition in order to objectively evaluate spatial recognition. Group comparisons based on task performance showed a significant increase in oxygenated hemoglobin in the higher group compared to the lower group in both score and clear time. In addition, a comparison between the right and left brains showed that the right brain tended to have a higher percentage of increased oxygenated hemoglobin, which is consistent with the view that spatial recognition ability is significantly right-brained. These results suggest that the mental rotation task is closely related to prefrontal regions and that changes in cerebral blood flow in the right brain are reflected in spatial recognition ability.