ArticleScientific reports2023
Differences in engineers' brain activity when CAD modelling from isometric and orthographic projections.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Neurocognitive differences in sketching between design tasks and creativity tests.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- EEG-based study of design creativity: a review on research design, experiments, and analysis.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A way of presenting information in visual representations of technical systems influences the progress and the outcome of the engineering design process. Consequently, improving the means by and through which information is utilised during the process is one suggested approach to advancing engineering design. Engineers' interaction with visual representations of technical systems is mainly visual and virtual. Although such interactions are cognitively complex, little is known about cognition (mental information processing) underlying the utilisation of design information during engineering design. To narrow the research gap, this study explores how visual representations of technical systems affect engineers' brain activity while generating computer-aided design (CAD) models based on them. More precisely, the brain activity of 20 engineers is captured and analysed using electroencephalography (EEG) during the visuospatially-intensive design tasks of CAD modelling in two conditions; when technical systems are presented with orthographic and isometric projections in technical drawings. The results imply the sensitivity of engineers' brain activity in CAD modelling to the visual representation from which a technical system is interpreted. In particular, significant differences are found in theta, alpha, and beta task-related power (TRP) over the cortex when interpreting the technical drawings and CAD modelling from them. Furthermore, the results reveal significant differences in theta and alpha TRP when considering the individual electrodes, the cortical hemispheres, and the cortical areas. In particular, theta TRP over the right hemisphere and the frontal area seems essential in distinguishing neurocognitive responses to the orthographic and isometric projections. As such, the conducted exploratory study sets the foundations for exploring engineers' brain activity while performing visuospatially-intensive design tasks, whose segments are relatable to the aspects of visuospatial thinking. Future work will explore brain activity in other design activities that are highly visuospatial, with a larger sample size and an EEG device of a higher spatial resolution.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.