DISSOCIATION BETWEEN POSITION SENSE AND VISUAL-SPATIAL COMPONENTS OF HEMINEGLECT THROUGH A SPECIFIC REHABILITATION TREATMENT

Current evidence suggests an association between contralesional extra- personal hemineglect and deficits of arm position sense in patients wi th damage to the right cerebral hemisphere. A unitary deficit may prod uce both disorders, or this association may reflect the anatomical con tiguity of relevant brain structures. A rehabilitation treatment, devi sed for visual-spatial hemineglect, was used to investigate these hypo theses in 8 patients with damage to the right cerebral hemisphere. The treatment improved hemineglect, but not the position sense deficit. T he severity of the latter was however transiently reduced by optokinet ic stimulation, with effects similar to those found in visual-spatial hemineglect. These effects of rehabilitation suggest that extra-person al hemineglect and the neglect-related component of the position sense disorder of the left forearm are independent, though frequently assoc iated, deficits. Implications for the design of rehabilitation program s are discussed.