title: [Motor variant of the unilateral neglect syndrome as a consequence of brain injury].
abstract: Motor neglect is characterized by underutilization of one side of the body when this failure cannot be attributed to primary sensory and motor defects. Impaired motor activity manifests itself in disturbance of using spontaneously contralesional limbs in the absence of severe hemiplegia (motor neglect) or in reduced readiness to initiate and carry out intact ipsilesional arm movements within or towards the contralesional hemispace (pre-motor neglect). These specific higher-order motor deficits may occur in isolation (pure motor neglect) or as part of a more pervasive neglect syndrome involving disturbances in visual, auditory, and tactile modalities or even in mental images. The lesions underlying the motor variant of hemi-neglect are ascribed to various topographic sites of the brain involving cortical and subcortical structures of the right or, rarely, the left hemisphere. Motor features of neglect are more frequent, more severe and long-lasting in right--as compared with left--brain-damaged patients. This deficit additionally makes improvement and neurorehabilitation of patients with focal brain damage difficult.
authors.affiliation: Pracownia Neuropsychiatrii Klinicznej, II Klinika Neurologiczna, Instytut Psychiatrii i Neurologii w Warszawie. polanows@ipin.edu.pl
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Polanowska
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Seniów
mesh_terms: D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013577:Syndrome