HOW LATERALIZED IS VISUOSPATIAL NEGLECT

Seventeen patients with left visuospatial neglect caused by cerebral i nfarction undertook the six subtests of the Behavioural Inattention Te st (BIT) as soon as possible following their neurological event. The g roup mean results on line, letter and star cancellation tasks revealed a linear decrement in performance from right to left on the displays. However, subsequent analysis of patients' cancellations revealed that this finding was not representative of individual performance. Many p atients in fact made both marked left- and right-sided omissions on th e three cancellation tasks. This was not merely a transitory phenomeno n because it remained present at weekly follow-up intervals. Patients' performance on a laterally extended version of the star cancellation task was also investigated. These findings strongly suggest that patie nts with visuospatial neglect can initially present with a diverse ran ge of performance deficit. Many patients, in particular those with the lowest BIT scores, showed a consistent pattern in the results on lett er and star cancellation, providing evidence that their inattention co nsistently included a considerable section of right-sided (including t he extreme right of displays) as well as left-sided space.