Data and Statistics for Preuss et al., 2024

The existence of a general mental spatial transformation mechanism in human cognition has long been argued over. Consensus exists on the importance of parietal areas for spatial transformation, however, lateralization, differentiation, and involvement of additional neural areas seem strongly dependent on task design, including conditions, context, and chronology. This study finds common ground and distinct features of spatial transformation in two tasks, mental rotation and mental folding, by analyzing and comparing EEG recordings from two experiments. Cognitive modeling was used to find brain areas associated with mental rotation and mental folding by linking simulation and cortical data through a novel approach. Task-specific models simulated intra-trial cognitive activity, predicting neural activity sources and providing theory-driven semantic interpretations of neural activity during task-solving. Mental rotation showed spatial activity in parietal and occipital areas, with central and right regions showing increased activity for easier trials and left regions for more difficult trials. For mental folding, the results showed central parietal and left parietal as well as occipital areas during spatial storage activity, as well as right parietal areas exclusive to spatial transformation. Left occipital and parietal regions were particularly active for visual baseline trials, while the right parietal area exhibited stronger activity for higher task difficulty. Comparing neural correlates between tasks showed inverse, difficulty-dependent lateralization patterns, implying contrasting demands on representation and transformation processes between rotation and folding.