PERSONAL VERSUS EXTRAPERSONAL NEGLECT - A GROUP-STUDY OF THEIR DISSOCIATION USING A RELIABLE CLINICAL-TEST

The validation of a simple quantitative clinical test of personal negl ect is described in this study of 17 right brain damaged CVA patients with extrapersonal neglect, 14 without unilateral extrapersonal neglec t, 13 left brain damaged CVA patients and 17 age-matched controls. The test had a high reliability and clearly differentiated neglect patien ts from all other groups. Furthermore the test identified a much highe r incidence of personal neglect among extrapersonal neglect patients ( 59%) than has previously been found. Moreover this study confirms earl ier findings by showing a double dissociation between personal and ext rapersonal neglect. Seven patients with extrapersonal neglect showed n o personal neglect while five patients showing no extrapersonal neglec t did show personal neglect on this test.