E. Ladavas et F. Pavani, NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE FUNCTIONAL-INTEGRATION OF VISUAL, AUDITORY AND PROPRIOCEPTIVE SPATIAL MAPS, NeuroReport, 9(6), 1998, pp. 1195-1200
WE infer the functional integration of the visual, auditory and propri
oceptive spatial maps from the behaviour of a patient (G.A.) with left
visual neglect, i.e. a derangement of visual space representation. G.
A. was required to point manually to left, centre or right acoustic st
imuli, under visual control or blindfolded, with the responding hand (
left or right) located either on the left, centre or right space. G.A.
's manual pointing responses to left auditory stimuli were strongly in
fluenced by the visual spatial information and by the proprioceptive s
patial information related to the position of the responding effector.
In the visual control condition, when the patient performed the task
with the left effector located on the left, pointing responses to left
auditory stimuli were shifted towards the right intact visual space.
In contrast, when the visual spatial information was rendered less sal
ient, i.e. in the blindfolded condition, and the effector was again lo
cated on the left, manual pointing responses were confined to the prev
iously ignored left space. These findings are consistent with the view
that the acoustic representation is modulated by the impaired visual
representation and by the proprioceptive spatial map related to the po
sition of the responding effector. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.