Unilateral visual neglect (UVN) is the inability of patients, with damage t
o their left or right cerebral hemisphere, to respond to stimuli presented
on the side opposite the lesion. We present a preliminary study on using a
HMD-based-eye-tracking system for the assessment of UVN. Normal subjects an
d patients with UVN were shown two virtual environment (VE) scenes. The sub
jects were required to identify and count the objects in scene I, and to id
entify a clock and tell the time in scene 2. Eye movements of these subject
s were recorded during the task There were differences in the amount of vis
ual field scanned by the subjects and patients. The normal subjects scanned
the entire scene and identified all the objects. Patients with left UVN di
d not scan the left side of the scene and did not report objects on that si
de. Patients with right UVN scanned only the left side of the scene and did
not report objects on the right side of the scene. This study demonstrates
the feasibility of using the HMD-based eye-tracking system in a virtual en
vironment for characterizing UVN.