ON SOME NEUROBIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL-ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE CONTRALATERAL-NEGLECT SYNDROME

Contralateral neglect is a frequent clinical syndrome which can be pro voked by lesions in several brain areas (primarily inferior parietal a nd frontal) and includes symptoms of motor and perceptual negligence o f both real and imaginative contralateral hemi-space. Attentional and representative theories attempting to explain neglect are presently th e most popular. This paper analyzes two cases of neglect patients. Pay ing attention especially to their reading defects, a possible role of the persons with contralateral neglect is proposed in the development of script. Other neurobiological and cultural-anthropological question s arising from the analysis of these cases are also discussed.