The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Unilateral spatial neglect: recent approaches to mechanism and remediation
Language	J
AuthorList	Sumio Ishiai
Affiliation	Department of Rehabilitation, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 18 (3), 182-187, 2002
Received
Accepted
Abstract	The hypotheses on the mechanism of unilateral spatial neglect are reviewed briefly, and attentional bias is reconsidered in the process of task execution. Directed attention is the function of focusing awareness on one or more of relevant objects and shifting its focus appropriately, which is closely related to perceptual and motor activities. Perceptual and motor processing is enhanced in the attended space, and attention is directed to the space where some object is perceived and acted upon. According to the rightward bias of attention in left neglect, perception and motor response are directed mainly to the right hemispace or the right side of objects. When crossed leftward responses are elicited from perception of right-side stimuli, the representational map for the left space may be activated in the brain of patients with neglect. In such a condition, perceptual and motor interaction may be shifted rather to the left space. Patients with neglect seem to have difficulty in dissociating the focus of perception and the location of motor execution. Prism adaptation (Rossetti et al, 1998) produces a discrepancy between the programmed goal of the hand movement and the seen direction of the visual target. This alteration of sensorimotor coordinates may break down the pathological perceptual and motor interaction to dramatically improve neglect.
Keywords	Unilateral spatial neglect, mechanism, remediation