title: Neural correlates of somatosensory processing in patients with neglect.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent evidence from neuroimaging studies using visual tasks suggests that the right superior parietal cortex plays a pivotal role for the recovery of neglect. Importantly, neglect-related deficits are not limited to the visual system and have a rather multimodal nature. We employed somatosensory stimulation in patients with neglect in order to analyze activity changes in networks that are presumably associated with this condition.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven chronic neglect patients with right hemispherical stroke were investigated with a fMRI paradigm in which the affected and unaffected hand were passively moved.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Brain activation was correlated with the performance in clinical neglect tests. Significant positive correlations with brain activation were found for the lesion duration, the performance in bells and letter cancellation tests and the line bisection test. These activated areas formed a distributed pattern in the right superior parietal cortex.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest a shared representation of visual and somatosensory networks in the right superior parietal cortex in patients with right hemispherical strokes and neglect. The spatial pattern of activity in the superior parietal cortex points out to a different representation of changes related to lesion duration and neglect.
authors.affiliation: Kliniken Schmieder, Allensbach, Germany. t.hassa@klinikenschmieder.de
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hassa
authors.forename: Mircea Ariel
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Schoenfeld
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dettmers
authors.forename: Christian Michael
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Stoppel
authors.forename: Cornelius
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weiller
authors.forename: Rüdiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lange
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013028:Space Perception; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications*; D014796:Visual Perception