title: Can the exploration of left space be induced implicitly in unilateral neglect?
abstract: The purpose of the present study was to explore the ability of neglect patients to detect and exploit the predictive value of a cue to respond more quickly and accurately to targets on their contralesional side in a Posner spatial cueing task. The majority of the cues (i.e. 80%) were invalid, indicating that the target would appear on the opposite side, although patients were not informed of this bias. Our results demonstrate that some neglect patients were able to extract the cue's predictability and use it to orient faster toward the left. This cueing effect was present even in patients who were subsequently unable to describe the predictive character of the cues, and thus was not modulated by reportable awareness of the cue-target relation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Behavior and Cognition, Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium. Electronic address: m.wansard@ulg.ac.be.
authors.forename: Murielle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wansard
authors.affiliation: INSERM-UPMC UMRS 1127, Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Brain and Spine Institute, Paris, France; Fédération de Neurologie, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière, AP-HP, Paris, France; Department of Psychology, Catholic University, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bartolomeo
authors.affiliation: Service de Revalidation Neurologique, CHU Brugmann, Bruxelles, Belgium.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vanderaspoilden
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Behavior and Cognition, Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geurten
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Behavior and Cognition, Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Meulemans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology; D001530:Belgium; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Consciousness; Implicit orienting; Spatial attention; Visual neglect