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Neglect after right hemisphere stroke

A smaller floodlight for distributed attention

From the Neurology Service (Drs. Barrett and Heilman), Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Department of Neurology (Drs. Barrett, Beversdorf, Crucian, and Heilman), University of Florida, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.

Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Anna M. Barrett, Department of Neurology, PO Box 100236, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL 32610-0236.

Objective: To learn whether there was a defect in an attentional floodlight. We used a line decision task for which subjects had to decide if two line segments separated by a gap were one line or two parallel lines. We varied the area of the gap and, therefore, the area over which subjects needed to spread attention to perform the task correctly.

Background: Visual tasks requiring focused attention use an attentional spotlight. Other visual tasks requiring spatially distributed attention may require a floodlight. Neglect after right hemisphere stroke can be associated with a defect in the attentional spotlight.

Results and Conclusions: Two patients with neglect after right hemisphere stroke performed more poorly than normal control subjects and left hemisphere-damaged control subjects as the area of spread in the gap increased. Right hemisphere-damaged patients did not differ from control subjects' performance on another visuospatial parameter-the degree of discontinuity between the line segments. These results support a defective attentional floodlight in neglect.

Supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs Merit Review Grant no. 114-30-4813 and the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Presented at the 26th meeting of the International Neuropsychological Association and published in abstract form in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society (1998;4:41-42).

Received December 31, 1997. Accepted in final form June 27, 1998.