NEURAL CORRELATES OF MENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE BODY-IN-SPACE

Regional cerebral blood flow was measured with positron emission tomog raphy in human subjects during the performance of a task requiring men tal rotation of their hand and a perceptually equivalent control task that did not require such a process. Comparison of the distribution of cerebral activity between these conditions demonstrated significant b lood flow increases in the superior parietal cortex, the intraparietal sulcus, and the adjacent rostralmost part of the inferior parietal lo bule. These findings demonstrated that, in the human brain, there is a specific system of parietal areas that are involved in mental transfo rmations of the body-inspace.