Elsevier

Neuropsychologia

Volume 36, Issue 1, January 1998, Pages 109-114
Neuropsychologia

Impairments of mental rotation in Parkinson's disease

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0028-3932(97)00017-1Get rights and content

Abstract

It is controversial whether parkinsonian patients are impaired on visuospatial tasks. In the present study, patients and normal control subjects judged whether pairs of wire-frame figures in different orientations were the same or different. The orientation difference between the figures was either in the picture plane (around the z-axis, or two-dimensional) or in depth (around the y-axis, or three-dimensional). Reaction times and error rates were measured. For the two-dimensional task, there were no significant differences in errors between the two groups, though Parkinsonian subjects were significantly slower to respond than the control group. In the three-dimensional task, patients had a different pattern of reaction times from the controls and made significantly more errors, which were systematic at large angular differences. The results suggest a visuospatial deficit in Parkinson's disease, which reflects problems in some aspect of the perception of extra-personal space.

References (13)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (95)

  • Visual-vestibular interactions

    2019, Multisensory Perception: From Laboratory to Clinic
  • Ocular and visual disorders in Parkinson's disease: Common but frequently overlooked

    2017, Parkinsonism and Related Disorders
    Citation Excerpt :

    Performance on several visuospatial tasks appears to be impaired in patients with PD [6,10,50]. Amongst these are the perception of space [51,52], recognition of line orientation [53,54], mental three-dimensional rotation of objects [55], identification of figures embedded in complex figures [56], visuospatial problem solving [57,58], depth perception [59] and spatial working memory [60]. In addition, visuoperceptual impairments in the detection of motion [61] human movement [62,63] and facial recognition [6,64–66] have been observed in PD.

  • Integrative parietal cortex processes: Neurological and psychiatric aspects

    2014, Journal of the Neurological Sciences
    Citation Excerpt :

    From this point of view, deficits in visuospatial and executive systems and specific aspects of memory have been mainly associated to cognitive impairments of Parkinson's disease [133,134]. The 3D mental rotation, linear orientation and memory tests for spatial localization have shown visuospatial deficiencies in patients with Parkinson's disease [135–138]. However, little is known about the brain mechanisms related to these visuospatial deficits [133].

  • The integrative functions of the basal ganglia

    2023, The Integrative Functions of The Basal Ganglia
View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text