Isomorphic 2D/3D Objects and Saccadic Characteristics in Mental Rotation

Mental rotation(MR)is an important aspect of cognitive processing in gaming since transformation andmanipulation of visuospatial information are necessary in order to execute a gaming task.This study provides insights on saccadic characteristics in gaming task performance that involves 2D and 3D isomorphic objects with varying angular disparity.Healthy participants(N=60)performedMR gaming task.Each participantwas tested individually in an acoustic treated lab environment.Gaze behavior data of all participants were recorded during task execution and analyzed to find the changes in spatiotemporal characteristics of saccades associated with the variation in angular disparity and dimensionality.There were four groups with unique combination of angular disparity and dimensionality,each with fifteen participants randomly assigned.Results indicate that the spatial characteristics of the object affect the temporal aspect of saccade(duration),whereas the spatial aspect of the saccade(amplitude)is influenced by the objects’dimension.A longer saccade duration indicates a prolonged suppression of spatial information processing during the MR tasks with objects at convex range angular disparities.Therefore,the MR tasks with convex angular disparity become more complex to process compared to the tasks with reflex angular disparity.MR process is faster and more accurate with 3D objects compared to the 2D objects.There is an interaction between angular disparity and dimensionality in terms of mental demand,such that theMR processing with 2Dobjects in reflex angular disparitywasmoremental demanding than that of convex angular disparity;however,this trend was absent in case of 3Dobjects.Hence,during the MR task,the longer saccade duration implies that the taskswith convex angular disparities become comparativelymore challenging.Also,the lower saccadic amplitude for 2D objects indicates difficulties in processing due to deficient visual features.The findings could help in framing the computer-based game(or videogame)concerningMRabilities for training or rehabilitation purposes.

Dimensionality and Angular Disparity Influence Mental Rotation in Computer Gaming

Computer gaming is one of the most common activities that individuals are indulged in their usual activities concerning interactive systembased entertainment.Visuospatial processing is an essential aspect of mental rotation(MR)in playing computer-games.Previous studies have explored how objects’features affect theMRprocess;however,non-isomorphic 2Dand 3D objects lack a fair comparison.In addition,the effects of these features on brain activation during the MR in computer-games have been less investigated.This study investigates how dimensionality and angular disparity affect brain activation duringMRin computer-games.EEG(electroencephalogram)data were recorded from sixty healthy adults while playing an MR-based computer game.Isomorphic 2D and 3D visual objects with convex and reflex angular disparity were presented in the game.Cluster-based permutation tests were applied on EEG spectral power for frequency range 3.5–30 Hz to identify significant spatio-spectral changes.Also,the band-specific hemispheric lateralization was evaluated to investigate task-specific asymmetry.The results indicated higher alpha desynchronization in the left hemisphere during MR compared to baseline.The fronto-parietal areas showed neural activations during the game with convex angular disparities and 3D objects,for a frequency range of 7.8–14.2Hz and 7.8–10.5Hz,respectively.These areas also showed activations during the game with reflex angular disparities and 2D objects,but for narrower frequency bands,i.e.,8.0–10.0 Hz and 11.0–11.7 Hz,respectively.Left hemispheric dominance was observed for alpha and beta frequencies.However,the right parietal region was notably more dominant for convex angular disparity and 3D objects.Overall,the results showed higher neural activities elicited by convex angular disparities and 3D objects in the game compared to the reflex angles and 2Dobjects.The findings suggest future applications,such as cognitive modeling and controlled MR training using computer games.

The Influence of the Mental Rotation Task on Mental Rotation Skills in Badminton

The current study is the first to examine the idea that badminton players may use mental rotation skills to imagine the flight direction of the shuttlecock.The study included badminton experts,near-experts,and non-badminton players and asked them to complete a specially designed mental rotation task,inspired by the methods from Shepard and Metzler(1971).The findings showed no significant group difference between the three expertise groups.This is in support of previous research examining visuo-spatial skills in badminton(Ozel,Larue,&Molinaro,2002;2004;Wang et al.,2015).The current study therefore concluded that badminton players may not have greater mental rotation capacity than other groups.However,these studies found that the badminton players responded quicker on the task than non-badminton players.The current study therefore hypothesised that badminton players might have greater mental rotation awareness,rather than mental rotation capacity,which allows them to respond quicker to visuo-spatial tasks.

Sex differences in eye movements and neural oscillations during mental rotation in virtual reality

Virtual reality(VR)has been a promising tool for developing visuospatial tasks.Among visuospatial tasks,mental rotation tasks are widely used in the assessment of visuospatial ability.Males have a distinct advantage in mental rotation ability compared to females,yet it is generally produced by investigations based on two-dimensional(2D)images on a computer screen.Sex differences in mental rotation tasks with three-dimensional(3D)objects in VR were not fully investigated.It is unclear whether the male's advantages in 2D mental rotation tasks are weakened in 3D tasks.The aim of this study was to provide new insights into the understanding of sex differences in mental rotation tasks presented in VR.Here,we developed a VR mental rotation task(VR-MRT)using 3D objects presented by a head-mounted display(HMD)and used VR-based eye tracking and electroencephalography(EEG)to examine eye movements and neural oscillations for males and females.Our results showed that females preferred a piecemeal strategy compared to males,suggesting a significant sex difference in visual strategy.More importantly,we found no significant sex differences in alpha-band and beta-band oscillations related to rotation processes of VR-MRT.These findings indicated that sex differences in the VR-MRT were mainly attributed to the selection of visual strategy rather than the rotation processes.The study helps to comprehensively understand the dominant factors contributing to the sex differences in the VR-MRT.

Dorsal-Ventral Visual Pathways and Object Characteristics:Beamformer Source Analysis of EEG

In performing a gaming task,mental rotation(MR)is one of the important aspects of visuospatial processing.MR involves dorsal-ventral pathways of the brain.Visual objects/models used in computer-games play a crucial role in gaming experience of the users.The visuospatial characteristics of the objects used in the computer-game influence the engagement of dorsal-ventral visual pathways.The current study investigates how the objects’visuospatial characteristics(i.e.,angular disparity and dimensionality)in an MR-based computer-game influence the cortical activities in dorsalventral visual pathways.Both the factors have two levels,angular disparity:convex angle(CA)vs.reflex angle(RA)and dimensionality:2D vs.3D.Sixty healthy adults,aged,18-29 years(M=21.6)were recruited for the study and randomly assigned to four gaming conditions i.e.,15 participants in each group.The multichannel electroencephalogram(EEG)data were recorded from 60 healthy adults while playing the game.The source reconstruction was done for∼3000 sources inside the brain using the Dynamic Imaging of Coherent Sources(DICS)beamforming method forθ1(4-5.75),θ2(5.75-7.5),α1(7.5-9),α2(9-11),α3(11-13),β1(13-17.25),β2(17.25-21.5)Hz frequency sub-bands.The reconstructed neuronal sources were segmented into 68 functionally parcellated brain regions,and the percentage of active sources for each region was computed.Further,the differences across the 68 regions among the four gaming conditions were evaluated using the percentage of active sources.The differences in activation for the dorsal-ventral pathways and some additional brain regions were observed among the four groups.The game with 2D objects and CA showed higher activation than that with 3D objects and RA,respectively.The dorsal pathway was found to be more active in contrast to the ventral pathway.The findings suggest that angular disparity and dimensionality in MR influence the engagement of dorsal-ventral visual pathways in such a way that angular disparity has a greater impact on cortical activation across this region than dimensionality.Also,higher activation for CA as compared to RA irrespective of dimensionality reflects the complexity of spatial information processing under CA.Similarly,greater activation was seen for 2D objects than 3D,indicating difficulty in information processing due to deficient visual features.