Unilateral neglect after right-hemisphere damage: Contributions from event-related potentials

Unilateral neglect is a frequent sequel of right-hemisphere damage. Patient s suffering from neglect may fail to detect, orient to, acknowledge or resp ond to stimuli on their contralesional side, even in the absence of primary sensory or motor loss. Despite the major clinical significance of the phen omenon and its potential implications for our understanding of human cognit ion, the underlying cognitive deficits are not well understood. We review t he relatively few event-related potential studies that attempted to assess the different parts of the cognitive system in neglect patients. We suggest that theories of neglect, based primarily on performance data, may be refi ned by incorporating these results, and that this line of research may prov ide information that is not available using traditional performance measure s. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.