Application of the neuropsychological evaluation in vocational planning after brain injury
Robert T. Fraser, David C. Clemmons in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation, 2017
The parietal lobes are important for visual-spatial organizational ability. This part of the brain assists in interpreting information that is delivered through the visual senses, and is known as spatial ability. For most people, the right parietal lobe is more responsible for analyzing and organizing spatial information. For example, a mechanic may employ visual organizational skills in assembling and figuring out problems with a carburetor. Awareness of three-dimensional objects and designs, and the ability to integrate motor activities (e.g., drawing an object on a piece of paper by looking at the object) is a function of this part of the brain. It is thought that the left parietal lobe is important for executing arithmetic problems, comprehending and repeating speech, and reading and writing abilities.
Sexual Differentiation of Spatial Functions in Humans
Akira Matsumoto in Sexual Differentiation of the Brain, 2017
To summarize, there is preliminary evidence from a number of sources that spatial ability may vary with T levels in adult males. Although the observations must be regarded cautiously until further data come to light, so far the data suggest that increases in T when T is fairly low are associated with improvements in spatial performance, whereas increases in T when T is high may serve to diminish spatial performance. The mechanisms underlying these effects are not yet understood. One possibility is that T exerts its effects through conversion to estradiol rather than acting on androgen receptors per se at the neural level. An appealing feature of this possibility is that it would allow us to integrate the findings in males and females to form a unified theory regarding the adult effects of sex steroids on spatial abilities.
ENTRIES A–Z
Philip Winn in Dictionary of Biological Psychology, 2003
The HIPPOCAMPAL FORMATION plays a key role in SPATIAL MAPPING. A LESION of the HIPPOCAMPUS in rodents and birds produces severe ACQUISITION impairments in a variety of map-based spatial tasks. Importantly, hippocampal lesions do not disrupt the retention of previously acquired map-based information or performance on taxis- or praxis-based tasks. This suggests the hippocampal formation is crucial for the acquisition, but not long-term storage, of spatial maps. Additionally, hippocampal size may be positively correlated with spatial ability in variety of rodents and birds. SINGLE- UNIT ELECTROPHYSIOLOGICAL RECORDING studies of PYRAMIDAL NEURONS in the hippocampal formation have found PLACE CELLS in the CA1 and CA3 subfields that increase spiking (see SPIKE) when animals enter circumscribed locations. However, PARIETAL CORTEX and FRONTAL CORTEX lesions impair performance on some spatial tasks, neurons in the NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS and SUPERIOR COLLICULUS also code location information, and HEAD DIRECTION CELLS have been found in the PRESUBICULUM. These latter findings suggest that the hippocampal formation is a component of the larger neural system that subserves spatial cognition.
The relationship between spatial ability, cerebral blood flow and learning with dynamic images: A transcranial Doppler ultrasonography study
Published in Medical Teacher, 2018
Jay J. Loftus, Michele Jacobsen, Timothy D. Wilson
The present study utilizes Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography (TCD) to measure changes in cerebral blood velocity (CBV) during learning activities incorporating dynamic digital learning objects. Dynamic images change visual representation over time and space thus demonstrating relationships or functions that would otherwise require many still images. Changes in CBV are proportional to changes in cognitive processing (Aaslid et al. 1982; Kelley et al. 1992; Stroobant and Vingerhoets 2000) rendering it a valuable tool for studying mental effort. In our earlier work on static images (Loftus et al. 2017), the current study compares CBV changes during learning with dynamic images that occurred in learners with high and low spatial ability. Spatial ability can be defined as a cognitive ability to generate, retain, retrieve and transform well-structured visual images (Lohman 1996). Performance on learning tasks was used as the measure of learning that occurs within each participant. The purpose of the present study is to determine if the relationship between cognitive processing and performance on learning tasks using dynamic images is mitigated by a learner’s spatial ability. Determining this relationship will provide physiological evidence for the theoretical construct of cognitive load. Further, empirical physical evidence will provide a different method for evaluating the efficacy of using complex digital images for instructional purposes.
Effects of 2D and 3D image views on hand movement trajectories in the surgeon’s peri-personal space in a computer controlled simulator environment
Published in Cogent Medicine, 2018
Anil Ufuk Batmaz, Michel de Mathelin, Birgitta Dresp-Langley
Four healthy right-handed men ranging in age between 20 and 45 and four healthy right-handed women ranging in age between 20 and 45 participated in this study. They were all professionals in administrative careers, with normal or corrected-to normal vision, and naive to the scientific hypotheses underlying the experiments. Pre-screening interviews were conducted to make sure that none of the selected participants had any particular experience in tool-mediated mechanical or surgical procedures. Participants’ handedness was assessed using the Edinburgh inventory for handedness designed by Oldfield (1971) to confirm that they were all true right-handers. They were screened for spatial ability on the basis of the Perspective Taking Spatial Orientation Test (PTSOT) developed by Hegarty and Waller (2004), which permits evaluating the ability of individuals to form three-dimensional mental representations of objects and their relative localization and orientation on the basis of merely topological (i.e. non axonometric) visual data displayed two-dimensionally on a sheet of paper or a computer screen. All participants scored successful on 10 or more of the 12 items of the test, which corresponds to spatial ability above average, as would be required for surgery.
Spatial Ability in Children with Mathematics Learning Disorder (MLD) and Its Impact on Executive Functions
Published in Developmental Neuropsychology, 2021
Samira Yazdani, Solmaz Soluki, Ali Akbar Arjmandnia, Jalil Fathabadi, Saeid Hassanzadeh, Vahid Nejati
Mathematics learning ability is closely related to cognitive functions (Hallahan & Mercer, 2002). An ever-growing body of literature show that spatial ability (SA) is one of the main cognitive functions that is crucial for learning mathematics (Burnett, Lane, & Dratt, 1979; Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 2001; Delgado & Prieto, 2004; Geary, Hoard, Byrd‐Craven, Nugent, & Numtee, 2007; Holmes, Adams, & Hamilton, 2008; Kyttälä, Aunio, Lehto, Van Luit, & Hautamäki, 2003; Lubinski & Benbow, 1992; McKenzie, Bull, & Gray, 2003; McLean & Hitch, 1999; Rasmussen & Bisanz, 2005). SA is related to particular types of math skills such as arithmetic, counting, geometry, and so on (Geary, 1993). Therefore, it can affect academic skills which is one of the important functions of children’s daily life.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Chemistry
- Parietal Lobe
- Spatial Memory
- Visual System
- Ability
- Mental Rotation
- Rod & Frame Test
- Water-Level Task
- Motor Skill
- Mental Image