The multivariate nature of unilateral neglect

Abstract

It is almost certain that unilateral neglect has been observed for centuries. Presumably people have suffered brain injury from the beginning of our existence, yet broad interest in the behavioural phenomena associated with unilateral neglect has appeared relatively recently. So one of the questions surrounding this interest is what new scientific issues have emerged that make the study of neglect so intriguing? It seems to me that the main answer to this question is the renewed interest in cognition and consciousness, and the failure to explain consciousness in biological terms. The magnet that pulls researchers (at least this researcher) into the study of unilateral neglect is the astonishing phenomenology that a person can exhibit both consciousness and unconsciousness of the perceptual scene, perceptual object, or the self at the same moment.