Persisting unilateral neglect: Compensatory processes within multiply-interacting circuits

Abstract

Space is mapped in a large number of different topographic representations in the brain, as, for instance, Mesulam (1981) has pointed out. Transient neglect is therefore possible after lesions to a variety of neuroanatomical locations, and in the early stages (e.g. three days post-stroke), large lesions (e.g. cerebrovascular accident; CVA) produce as frequent left as right neglect (Stone et al., 1991), though the former may be less severe and of a different quality. Given that in many of the spatial maps mentioned above there is crossed representation in space, the finding of a temporary bias towards one side of space is in itself neither surprising nor particularly interesting.