AMPLITUDE AND SPEED CHANGE OF THE OPTOKINETIC RESPONSE IN PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT NEGLECT

THE present study quantitatively investigated the slow and quick phase s of optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) in four groups of patients: right uni lateral brain-damaged patients with neglect, left and right patients w ithout neglect or hemianopia and patients with left or right retrogeni culate lesions and lateral homonymous hemianopia. Our results indicate that only neglect patients show a perturbation of both components of OKN. A comparison among MRI images of different patients shows that a region involving area 37 and adjacent areas 39 and 19, was impaired in all patients with neglect, but not in any other patient with either r ight or left lesions.