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Science 29 April 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5722, pp. 702 - 704
DOI: 10.1126/science.1107784
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Reports

The Dynamics of Interhemispheric Compensatory Processes in Mental Imagery

A. T. Sack,1* J. A. Camprodon,2 A. Pascual-Leone,2 R. Goebel1

The capacity to generate and analyze mental visual images is essential for many cognitive abilities. We combined triple-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (tpTMS) and repetitive TMS (rTMS) to determine which distinct aspect of mental imagery is carried out by the left and right parietal lobe and to reveal interhemispheric compensatory interactions. The left parietal lobe was predominant in generating mental images, whereas the right parietal lobe was specialized in the spatial comparison of the imagined content. Furthermore, in case of an rTMS-induced left parietal lesion, the right parietal cortex could immediately compensate such a left parietal disruption by taking over the specific function of the left hemisphere.

1 Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Maastricht University, Post Office Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, Netherlands.
2 Center for Non-invasive Brain Stimulation, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, 330 Brookline Avenue, Kirstein Building KS 452, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: a.sack{at}psychology.unimaas.nl

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