title: Hemispatial neglect reflected on visual memory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent studies of hemispatial neglect have revealed both lateralized and nonlateralized attention mechanisms contributing to the syndrome. In addition, neglect patients show impaired spatial working memory and diminished working memory capacity. The aim of this study was to investigate, how neglect would be reflected in their performances in commonly used clinical visual memory tests.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twelve patients with right hemisphere lesions and left neglect and twelve matched controls were assessed with the Behavioural Inattention Test, the visual reproduction of the WMS-R, the object memory test, the Rey figure test and the list learning test. Visuo-spatial span was explored with the Corsi block test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The severity of neglect was significantly associated with the naming of objects from the left side, with the copying of the Rey figure and with the immediate visual reproduction of the WMS-R. In comparison to the matched controls, the patients named and copied fewer items from both sides and showed impaired immediate and delayed recall of visual material, more so from the left side. After recovery, patients were still impaired in their visual search, whereas their immediate reproduction of visual material was no longer significantly different from the control subjects. The deficit in delayed recall of visual material persisted and was lateralized to the left side of the recollected memories. The role of hemianopia was analyzed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with neglect exhibited spatial working memory bias and diminished nonlateralized attention capacity in encoding and immediate recall. The deficit in delayed recall was lateralized to the left side of memorized material.
authors.affiliation: Brain Research and Rehabilitation Center Neuron, Kuopio, Finland. riitta.luukkainen-markkula@neuron.fi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Luukkainen-Markkula
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Tarkka
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pitkänen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sivenius
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hämäläinen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*