MULTIMODAL HEMISPATIAL DEFICITS AFTER LEFT-HEMISPHERE STROKE - A DISORDER OF ATTENTION

We report a patient who, after suffering infarcts involving the left t emporo-parietal and left anterior cingulate regions, performed signifi cantly worse on a variety of motor, language and sensory tasks when he acted in or attended to right hemispace. Performance on a number of t asks was better when acting in near as compared with far peri-personal space and with his head deviated to the left as compared with the rig ht. Additionally, performance with the 'unaffected' left hand was ofte n worse in right as compared with left hemispace. We propose that his deficits are attributable to a disruption of a left hemisphere-specifi c attentional system which normally serves to regulate the activation and articulation of left hemisphere processing modules.