The laterality of visual neglect after right hemisphere damage

Abstract

Clinical investigations of visual neglect after right hemisphere brain damage have traditionally been interested in evaluating the patient's performance in contralesional space. Ipsilesional errors have often been ignored or removed from further analysis. Recent findings question this traditional contralesional description and suggest that it may be ignoring theoretically pertinent features of the condition. This paper reports the results of a study which used a simple lateralised index to examine the spatial distribution of omissions after right hemisphere brain damage in a clinical sample of 90 stroke patients. The results indicate considerable variability in the spatial distribution of omissions and the existence of a small minority of patients who show predominantly ipsilesional omissions.