GRIP FORCE SCALING AFTER HEMISPATIAL NEGLECT

SPATIAL neglect has been explained as an impairment in the representat ion of extrapersonal space. One account suggests that representations of extrapersonal space are spatially compressed following neglect. In support of this view it has been demonstrated that neglect patients sy stematically underestimate the size of stimuli presented in their left hemifield. In the current study we investigated this phenomena by obt aining an indirect measure of perceived object size - the scaling of g rip force during prehension. We demonstrate for the first time that ne glect patients show increased levels of grip force for objects present ed in their left hemifield. This finding is discussed with reference t o a proposed distinction between visual processing used for object rec ognition, and visual processing used to guide action.