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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on January 23, 2009
Cerebral Cortex 2009 19(10):2298-2307; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn248
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Double Dissociation between Motor and Visual Imagery in the Posterior Parietal Cortex

Barbara Pelgrims1, Michael Andres1,2 and Etienne Olivier1

1 Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Neuroscience, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium, 2 Université catholique de Louvain, Faculty of Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Address correspondence to Etienne Olivier, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Avenue Hippocrate 54, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. Email: etienne.olivier{at}uclouvain.be.

Because motor imagery (MI) and visual imagery (VI) are influenced differently by factors such as biomechanical constraints or stimulus size, it is conceivable that they rely on separate processes, possibly involving distinct cortical networks, a view corroborated by neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies. In the posterior parietal cortex, it has been suggested that the superior parietal lobule (SPL) underlies VI, whereas MI relies on the supramarginalis gyrus (SMG). However, because several brain imaging studies have also shown an overlap of activations in SPL and SMG during VI or MI, the question arises as to which extent these 2 subregions really contribute to distinct imagery processes. To address this issue, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to induce virtual lesions of either SMG or SPL in subjects performing a MI (hand drawing rotation) or a VI (letter rotation) task. Whatever hemisphere was stimulated, SMG lesions selectively altered MI, whereas SPL lesions only affected VI, demonstrating a double dissociation between MI and VI. Because these deficits were not influenced by the angular distance of the stimuli, we suggest that SMG and SPL are involved in the reenactment of the motor and visual representations, respectively, and not in mental rotation processes per se.

Key Words: mental rotation • sensorimotor theory • superior parietal lobule • supramarginalis gyrus • transcranial magnetic stimulation


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