Effects of emotional face cueing on line bisection in neglect: A single case study

Abstract

One patient with left neglect (FM) and four right brain-damaged controls were tested on a line bisection task with pictures of neutral and emotional faces as unilateral cues. We thus manipulated the attentional salience of the cues (higher for emotional and lower for neutral faces) while keeping constant their physical dimensions. Our findings showed that left emotional faces were more effective than left neutral faces in reducing bisection errors only in FM. These data indicate that in the neglected hemispace cues bias attention rather than simply altering the perceptual point of balance of the line in the horizontal plane.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Ordine Mauriziano di Torino to Marco Tamietto.

We are grateful to Anna Berti for valuable comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. Thanks also to Patrizia Gindri for help in testing patients. Special thanks to Tiziana Zilli for technical support in mapping brain lesions with MRIcro. Giuliano, Lorenzo, Luca, and Marco wish to dedicate this study to the beloved memory of Michele Girardi: Take care, ‘Don Michele’.

Notes

*the stimuli were arranged centrally along the vertical meridian;