Left neglect dyslexia and the effect of stimulus duration.
The present study investigated the effects of the duration of the stimulus on the reading performance of right-brain-damaged patients with left neglect dyslexia. Three Italian patients read aloud words and nonwords, under conditions of unlimited time of stimulus exposure and of timed presentation. In the untimed condition, the majority of the patients' errors involved the left side of the letter string (i.e., neglect dyslexia errors). Conversely, in the timed condition, although the overall level of performance decreased, errors were more evenly distributed across the whole letter string (i.e., visual - nonlateralized - errors). This reduction of neglect errors with a reduced time of presentation of the stimulus may reflect the read out of elements of the letter string from a preserved visual storage component, such as iconic memory. Conversely, a time-unlimited presentation of the stimulus may bring about the rightward bias that characterizes the performance of neglect patients, possibly by a capture of the patients' attention by the final (rightward) letters of the string.
Arduino
Lisa S
LS
Institute of Psychology, University of Urbino, Via Saffi, 15, 61029 Urbino, Italy. lisa.arduino@uniurb.it
Vallar
Giuseppe
G
Burani
Cristina
C
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D004411:Dyslexia, Acquired / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*