IMPROVEMENT OF LEFT UNILATERAL SPAT NEGLECT IN A LINE EXTENSION TASK

Patients with left unilateral spatial neglect following lesions that m ainly involved the right parietal lobe performed a line extension task , extending a horizontal line leftward to double its original length. We examined line extension performances in the left and right hemispac es, as well as in the midline, to assess whether spatial conditions af fected these performances. Whatever the severity of neglect found in t he line bisection test, the line extension performances of the patient s were almost accurate and comparable with those of normal controls ac ross the three spatial conditions. The neglect patients executed movem ents in or toward the contralesional space as the task oriented their attention sufficiently to the left. The results suggest that the motor component, ie, directional hypokinesia, has little part in left unila teral spatial neglect due to right parietal lesions.