Neural Correlates of Mental Rotation in Preschoolers with Differentiated Working Memory Capacity: An fNIRS Study

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Introduction
Mental rotation (MR) is a cognitive process that requires participants to form a mental image of the target assemblage and align it with the other assemblage by rotating this image (Shepard & Cooper, 1982; Zacks, 2008), which is based on the processing of working memory (Hyun & Luck, 2007) thus has substantially involved the frontal cortex (BA 9, BA10), premotor cortex (BA 6), parietal cortex (BA 40, BA 44) (Jordan et al., 2001; Schöning et al., 2007). Most of the neural research focused on adults’ MR, while Wu at al. (2020) examined the neural correlates of MR in preschoolers using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and found that BA6, BA9, BA44 were involved in the MR processing. But the role of working memory in preschoolers' MR has not been explored, even though it is substantially engaged in mental rotation (Gauthier et al., 2002; Hyun & Luck, 2007). Therefore, this study will fill the gap by duplicating and extending the MR tasks by Wu at al. (2020) to explore the relationship between working memory and mental rotation. Accordingly, we assume that there are the differentiated neural correlates of mental rotation (MR) in preschoolers with high and low working memory capacity using fNIRS.
RQ: Are there any significant differences in the neural correlates of mental rotation between the preschoolers with high and low working memory capacity?

Method
Altogether 38 Chinese preschoolers (M = 5.0 years, SD = 0.69 years) participated in this study and completed the following tasks: (1) Working Memory Capacity (WMC) test using MST (Roman et al., 2014); (2) the Mental Rotation (MR) (Wu et al., 2020), and (3) its Control tasks (without MR). Their brain activity was recorded using the fNIRS instrument by measuring changes in hemoglobin concentrations in the outer cortex (Figure 1). They were divided into High-WMC (N1 = 9) and Low-WMC (N2 = 18) groups based on the WMC scores.

Results
The behavioral and fNIRS results indicated that: (1) there were no significant differences in MR task performance between the High-WMC (Mmr = 23.44, SD = 0.88) and Low-WMC group (Mmr = 23.67, SD = 0.59); (2) the Low-WMC group activated BA6, BA8, BA 9 and BA 44 whereas the High-WMC group activated BA8, BA10 and BA 44 during mental rotation; (3) significant differences were found in the activation of BA44 and BA9 between the High-WMC and Low-WMC groups during mental rotation; and (4) the High-WMC and Low-WMC groups differed significantly in the activation of BA 9 and BA10 during the control tasks, indicating that both areas might be responsible for the group differences in working memory. (449 words)

Authors

• Dandan Wu, Macquarie University
  Presenting Author

• Jinfeng Yang (JF), Henan Provincial People's Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sha Xie, Shenzhen University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jiutong Luo, Beijing Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chunqi Chang, Shenzhen University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hui Li, Macquarie University
  Non-Presenting Author