Does Children’s Left Hemisphere Lateralization During Mental Rotation Depend Upon the Stimulus Material?
Abstract
Recent publications suggest that there is a developmental-based change of lateralization of brain activity during mental rotation from left to bilateral. But it is an open question whether this left hemisphere activation could also be observed with stimuli other than characters. To test this, behavioral data and event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured in 28 children, 28 juveniles, and 28 adults during a mental rotation task with animal drawings. The results showed that reaction times (RTs) and error rates decreased with the increasing age of the participants. Furthermore, RTs and error rates increased with increasing angular disparity. An unlateralized ERP amplitude modulation at parietal electrodes as a function of angular disparity was present in all age groups. These results contrast former studies revealing a left lateralization in children when characters were used as stimuli for mental rotation. Left hemisphere activation is therefore not a general developmental trend; rather, it is suggested that it might be a correlate of written language acquisition.
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