Scientific article
OA Policy
English

A novel computerized assessment of manual spatial exploration in unilateral spatial neglect

First online date2021-01-21
Abstract

Unilateral spatial neglect is a neuropsychological syndrome commonly observed after stroke and defined by the inability to attend or respond to contralesional stimuli. Typically, symptoms are assessed using clinical tests that rely upon visual/perceptual abilities. However, neglect may affect high-level representations controlling attention in other modalities as well. Here we developed a novel manual exploration test using a touch screen computer to quantify spatial search behaviour without visual input. Twelve chronic stroke patients with left neglect and 27 patients without neglect (based on clinical tests) completed our task. Four of the 12 "neglect" patients exhibited clear signs of neglect on our task as compared to "non-neglect" patients and healthy controls, and six other patients (from both groups) also demonstrated signs of neglect compared to healthy controls only. While some patients made asymmetrical responses on only one task, generally, patients with the strongest neglect performed poorly on multiple tasks. This suggests that representations associated with different modalities may be affected separately, but that severe forms of neglect are more likely related to damage in a common underlying representation. Our manual exploration task is easy to administer and can be added to standard neglect screenings to better measure symptom severity.

Keywords
  • Neglect
  • Cancellation
  • Manual
  • Spatial attention
  • Stroke
Citation (ISO format)
PIERCE, Jordan Elisabeth et al. A novel computerized assessment of manual spatial exploration in unilateral spatial neglect. In: Neuropsychological rehabilitation, 2021, p. 1–22. doi: 10.1080/09602011.2021.1875850
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0960-2011
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158downloads

Technical informations

Creation15/10/2021 13:04:00
First validation15/10/2021 13:04:00
Update time16/03/2023 02:28:36
Status update16/03/2023 02:28:35
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