title: Visual and tactile size distortion in a patient with right neglect.
abstract: One typical feature of the neglect syndrome in patients with right hemisphere damage is that they bisect horizontal lines to the right of centre. It has been argued that to a large extent these bisection errors can be attributed to a perceptual change whereby the patient experiences the left half of a line as shorter than the right half, causing them to set the midpoint of the line towards the right. We describe here a patient with a left hemisphere lesion and rightward neglect, who consequently makes bisection errors in a leftward direction. We carried out a series of tests which confirmed that he shows a subjective visual distortion in the converse direction, i.e. a perception of horizontal extents on the right as shorter than extents on the left. We also found that he shows a similar distortion in his tactile perception. The association of visual and tactile distortions in this patient is compatible with the view that the distortion effects have a rather high-level origin. Multiple single-case studies will, however, be required to establish whether this association of deficits is typical, or whether visual and tactile size distortions are separable symptoms associated with neglect.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
authors.forename: C L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Pritchard
authors.forename: H C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Dijkerman
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: McIntosh
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Milner
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010469:Perceptual Distortion / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012858:Size Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*