2025/03/01 by Dandan Wu, Jinfeng Yang, Zhi Hong Wan +5 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Engineering · Health Professions · Medicine · #Occupational Therapy Practice and Research #Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques #Spatial Cognition and Navigation
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/brb3.70358
openalex publication_date 2025/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
PURPOSE: This study investigated the sex and task effects in mental rotation (MR) among Chinese primary school students, employing behavioral assessments and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) for a comprehensive analysis. METHOD: = 10.604, SD = 0.35). Participants completed two MR tasks: MR1, which required the rotation of 24 figures, and MR2, which involved the rotation of 16 English letters. fNIRS was employed to measure neural activation in specific brain areas, and behavioral performance was assessed alongside brain activity. FINDINGS: Behavioral data revealed no significant effects of sex or task type on the performance of MR1 or MR2. However, the fNIRS results demonstrated notable sex and task effects. Specifically, boys exhibited significantly higher brain activation in Brodmann Areas (BAs) 6, 9, and 46 than girls. In contrast, girls showed significantly more activation in BA 46 during the MR1 figure rotation task. This suggests that while behavioral tasks showed no differences, neuroimaging revealed underlying neural disparities. CONCLUSION: The discrepancy between behavioral and fNIRS findings reveals a tendency in behavioral studies to accept a false negative, resulting in Type II errors. While neuroimaging data indicate substantial differences not reflected in behavioral measures, this challenges the reliability of null results typically associated with traditional behavioral paradigms. This study highlights the critical need to integrate neuroimaging techniques to understand cognitive processes better. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of reevaluating conventional interpretations of behavioral data to ensure a more comprehensive view of mental function.