Neglect

Abstract

Neglect is generally defined as a deficit in which patients fail to orient, report and respond to information coming from the left, contralesional side of space (Heilman et al., 1993). Despite the fact that a great amount of literature devoted to this syndrome has revealed disturbances in the execution of exploratory movements, a kinematic analysis of reach to grasp movement in the peripersonal space is still vacant. In this study we present the first description of spatial and temporal characteristics of prehension movements performed by patients with unilateral neglect as assessed by classical clinical tests. Besides providing a basic knowledge of how neglect may influence the reach and the grasp components of object-oriented action, we address a second important issue concerning the effects of changing object position (Paulignan et al., 1991). This allows to clarify the residual ability of neglect patients to correct arm trajectory during movement in order to respond to a sudden change of object’s visual location in space.