THE EFFECT OF SPACE LOCATION ON NEGLECT DEPENDS ON THE NATURE OF THE TASK

It has been often reported that in patients with visual neglect line b isection is more accurate in the right than in the left hemispace. How ever, no data are available on the effect of hemispace on reading erro rs associated with neglect. We examined a 62-year-old man who presente d with severe left neglect following a large infarction in the right c erebral hemisphere. The patient was asked to read 180 words aloud and to bisect 90 lines. Stimuli were presented in three different spatial locations: across the centre, to the right or to the left of the body midline. Line bisection was significantly more accurate in the right h emispace compared with the centre, or the left hemispace. In contrast, reading was significantly more accurate with words presented on the l eft side than on the centre or right side. This is the first time that such dissociation has been reported. We hypothesize that the dissocia tion depends on the nature of the stimuli and on the different cogniti ve demands of the tasks.