BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE REVIEWS Zacks, Michelon / TRANSFORMATIONS OF VISUOSPATIAL IMAGES Transformations of Visuospatial Images

Transformations of visuospatial mental images are important for action, navigation, and reasoning. They depend on repre-sentations in multiple spatial reference frames, implemented in the posterior parietal cortex and other brain regions. The multi-ple systems framework proposes that different transformations can be distinguished in terms of which spatial reference frame is updated. In an object-based transformation, the reference frame of an object moves relative to those of the observer and the envi-ronment. In a perspective transformation, the observer’s egocen-tric reference frame moves relative to those of the environment and of salient objects. These two types of spatial reference frame updating rely on distinct neural processing resources in the pari-etal, occipital, and temporal cortex. They are characterized by different behavioral patterns and unique individual differ-ences. Both object-based transformations and perspective trans