Abstract
Introduction : Mental rotation is the ability to mentally identify an object, which is presented in a rotated manner. Moreover, mental rotation of a body part is a simple method of measuring human capacity for motor imagery. Previous studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging have reported activity in the cerebral motor-related area when subjects view a photograph of a rotated hand. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between characteristics and mental rotation reaction time (MRT). Methods : The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Gunma University. One hundred and three undergraduate students (51male and 52 female, 20.9±2.2 years old) participated in the study. Eighty four of them were right-handed and 19 were left-handed. Fifty nine had the right dominant eye and 44 had the left dominant eye. Thirty two photographs of a hand rotated 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees were randomly displayed on a screen. Subjects were asked to push a button when the hand indicated were presented, right or left. The subject's MRT and answer were recorded respectively. MRT were compared with different angles by one-way analysis of variance and in sex, the dominant eye and the dominant hand by unpaired t-test. The IBM SPSS Statistics 20 software was used for statistic analysis. The level of significance was set at 5%. Results : In MRT, there were significant differences in degree (180 versus 0, 90 and 270, p<0.05) and in dominant eye, although not in sex and a dominant hand (p<0.05). Discussion : The study suggested that MRT was clearly influenced by the dominant eye, not by sex and the dominant hand. In other words, information processing of the cerebral function related to the MR are different according to dominant eye.
