The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Behavioural Inattention Test performance after right-hemisphere stroke: Analysis of errors in the behavioural subtests
Language	J
AuthorList	Kaori Misonou¹⁾, Sumio Ishiai¹⁾, Yasumasa Koyama¹⁾, Keiko Seki²⁾, Shinichiro Maeshima³⁾
Affiliation	1) Department of Rehabilitation, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience 2) Faculty of Health Science, Kobe University School of Medicine 3) Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Wakayama Medical University
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 17 (3), 213-222, 2001
Received	Feb 18, 2001
Accepted	Apr 16, 2001
Abstract	The Behavioural Inattention Test (BIT; Wilson et al, 1987) is a test battery to evaluate unilateral spatial neglect. The BIT consists of the conventional and behavioural tests. Although many researchers studied neglect performances in the conventional test, characteristics of errors in the behavioural test remains to be elucidated. We examined 62 right hemisphere stroke patients with the BIT. The distribution of omissions was analyzed in the four exploratory subtests of the behavioural test, i.e., picture scanning, menu reading, coin sorting, and card sorting. The laterality index (Halligan et al., 1991) revealed that the lower scores of the four subtests reflected mostly the increase of omissions on the left side. Only a few patients showed more omissions on the right than on the left side. These were comparable to the findings in the same analyses in the exploratory subtests of the conventional test. According to Chi square test applied to the laterality indices, the patients showed similar distributions of omissions in the behavioural and conventional tests. The severity of neglect was rated on the basis of the number of the subtests in which the patients showed abnormal scores. The severity paralleled between the conventional and behavioural tests. Among the behavioural subtests, picture scanning was most sensitive to neglect. Another factor that may have affected the behavioural test score was verbal intelligence, since verbal IQ of WAIS-R was significantly correlated with the scores in picture scanning, telephone dialling, and telling and setting the time. The results indicate that the behavioural test of the BIT is valid for detection of unilateral spatial neglect and rating of its severity. We commented and discussed also on the pattern of erroneous performance in the non-exploratory subtests. To improve diagnostic accuracy with the behavioural test, the distribution of errors and the influence of verbal intelligence should be taken into account.
Keywords	Behavioural Inattention Test (Japanese edition), behavioural test, conventional test, unilateral spatial neglect, intelligence