Reducing neglect by introducing ipsilesional global cues

Halligan and Marshall (1994) have proposed that unilateral neglect (UN) can be reduced by ipsilesional global cues which induce processing of the whol e object, including contralesional features. This hypothesis has the potent ial to distinguish difficulties with disengaging attention after ipsilesion al capture I from the failure of contralesional stimuli to capture attentio n. To test the role of global cues, seven individuals with unilateral right -hemispheric lesions copied and verbally identified drawings adapted from S eron, Coyette, and Bruyer (1989). The level of meaningful information prese nted in the ipsilesional hemispace was varied across three levels: symmetri cal objects, objects with an identifying left-side feature, and objects tha t required processing of the left-side information for plausible identifica tion. The results support the global processing hypothesis by demonstrating that the less the ipsilesional inform motion, the less was the neglect of contralesional information. (C) 2000 Academic Press.