LATERAL BUMPING - A NORMAL-SUBJECT ANALOG TO THE BEHAVIOR OF PATIENTSWITH HEMISPATIAL NEGLECT

Lateral errors on line bisection tasks, by both normal subjects and pa tients with neglect, may reflect lateral asymmetries in attention. Pat ients with neglect also show a tendency to bump into objects on their 'neglected' side. We asked a large group of students (N = 383) to comp lete a line bisection task and to report if, and on which side, they h ad recently bumped themselves. More subjects reported bumping their ri ght side. Line bisection performance showed a significant effect of si de bumped, such that (as predicted) right bumpers tended to deviate fu rther left of centre on line bisection. These data offer an analogue o f the behaviour of patients with hemi-spatial neglect.