The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Quantitative analysis of spatio-temporal distribution of spatial attention in a patient with Alzheimer disease
Language	J
AuthorList	Eriko Matsumoto¹⁾²⁾³⁾, Toru Imamura²⁾, Etsuro Mori²⁾, Satoru Miyauchi¹⁾
Affiliation	1) Kansai Advanced Research Center, Communications Research Laboratory, Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications 2) Division of Clinical Neuroscience, Hyogo Institute for Aging Brain and Cognitive Disorders 3) Graduated School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 17 (3), 201-212, 2001
Received	Dec 1, 2000
Accepted	Mar 26, 2001
Abstract	The purpose of this study is to quantitatively analyze the spatial and temporal distribution of visual attention. We describe a patient showing progressive memory disturbance, visual disorientation, and visual inattention without psychic paralysis of fixation of gaze. He could not perform visual counting when asked to count more than three visual objects, but his visual acuity and visual field were not impaired. This patient was diagnosed as probable AD. MRI and PET revealed atrophy of the left parieto-occipital lobes and a diffuse decrease of regional cerebral glucose metabolism in the bilateral temporo-parieto-occipital region, predominantly in the left hemisphere. We investigated the relationship between fixation position and body-centered hemispace using a target-detection task. The patient and seven normal subjects were given a target-detection task under four different conditions. The results showed that the patient's spatial attention was biased to the left side in body-centered space even when he was able to move his fixation point to the right hemispace. This result suggests that the disturbance of body-centered spatial coordination can be a cause of asymmetrical spatial attentional distribution in this case.
Keywords	visual attention, spatio-temporal distribution, Alzheimer disease