Mirror-normal difference in the late phase of mental rotation: An ERP study

Abstract

Mirror-normal letter discriminations are thought to require mental rotation in order to transform the rotated alphanumeric character into its canonical orientation. Moreover, out-of-plane rotation is likely to occur after in-plane rotation to fully normalize the mirror version before the final mirror-normal judgment. The so-called rotation-related negativity, which varies with orientation, is found in both ERPonset (averaged with respect to stimulus onset) and ERPRT (averaged with respect to response time), representing the involvement of mental rotation in both time windows. Additionally, the mean amplitude of ERPRT correlates with individual performance. We performed a comprehensive analysis of the mirror-normal differences in the early and late phases of mental rotation and deduced that out-of-plane rotation is more likely to occur in the late phase and interacts with both in-plane rotation and the decision-making process, as indicated by both behavioral and electrophysiological findings.