title: Normalization of horizontal pseudoneglect following right, but not left, upper limb amputation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Subjects who have suffered limb amputations are known to have physiological alterations of their body's representation, or schema. Such changes of brain function might alter the right-left spatial allocation of attention. The goal of this study was to learn if, compared to normal subjects, limb amputees had alterations of right-left spatial attention.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were veterans with amputation of one upper or lower limb. All subjects performed horizontal line bisections in their left, middle and right body-centered space.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following right upper limb amputation, there appears to be a reduction of the normal left-sided bias (pseudoneglect) primarily for lines presented in the right body hemispace.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This amputation-induced alteration of attentional bias might be related to changes in the body schema, a compensatory strategy, or alterations of scanning patterns. Further studies are needed to reproduce these results and to learn the underlying brain mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Julia E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kline
authors.forename: Abigail M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Brenda L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Caitlin L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: McAuliffe
authors.forename: Kenneth M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Heilman
authors.forename: Jack W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tsao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000671:Amputation, Surgical / Q000009:adverse effects; D000673:Amputation, Traumatic / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001134:Arm Injuries / Q000601:surgery; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult