title: Coupling acoustic feedback to eye movements to reduce spatial neglect.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A typical consequence of right hemispheric brain lesions is spatial neglect. Patients with spatial neglect suffer from a variety of neglect phenomena and related disorders, including a sustained shift of the horizontal eye-in-head position toward the affected hemisphere. The aim of this study was to investigate benefits of a method of coupling eye movement to an acoustic feedback.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seven outpatients of the Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, with a chronic spatial neglect following a brain lesion took part in the study. The participants underwent a neuropsychological assessment of spatial neglect at baseline after 10 and 15 training sessions and a follow-up after 3 months. Therapy sessions included training of the saccadic and the pursuit eye movement with the help of acoustic feedback.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were significant improvements of performance in visual exploration, reading, reaction times, and the total score of the conventional subtest of the Behavioral Inattention Test and decreased symptoms of anosognosia. The results stayed stable over a period of 3 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Coupling eye movements to acoustic feedback seemed to be a suitable training method to improve visual exploration, reading, and awareness of patients with visual neglect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Gisela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pusswald
authors.forename: Nikolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Steinhoff
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000534:rehabilitation; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D056228:Feedback, Sensory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D013028:Space Perception; D016896:Treatment Outcome