Abstract
Patients with hemispatial neglect fail to cancel lines distributed on one side of a piece of paper. This defect is thought to be induced by a deficit in the neuronal systems that mediate attention, intention, and exploration toward and in the hemispace contralateral to the lesion. However, an alternate (but not mutually exclusive) interpretation is that the patients are either strongly attracted to or impaired in disengaging from the stimuli occupying the other, non-neglected hemispace. We tested ten patients with neglect on two versions of a cancellation test. In the control test they cancelled lines by drawing over them, and in the experimental test they erased lines. There were significantly more omissions in the drawing-over task than in the erasing task. The improved performance when lines were cancelled by removal instead of by marking them suggests that hemispatial neglect is influenced by the presence of stimuli in the non-neglected hemispace.
- © 1988 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.
Disputes & Debates: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
If you are uploading a letter concerning an article:
You must have updated your disclosures within six months: http://submit.neurology.org
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.