Question

Question on visual neglect.   

In visual neglet, a person is unable to process and perceive stimuli on the one side of the body( and from one side of the environment).

Question: what evidence is there that this is a perceptual problem and is not due to a lack of sensation on one side of the body?

Answer 1

Hemispatial neglect is categorised as a neuropsychological abnormality caused by the damage to one of the hemispheres of the brain that is usually sustained. It results in neglect of attention to one side of the field of vision and usually defined by loss of ability to process and perceive stimuli on one side of the body and proven that it is not due to lack of sensation. Lack of visual stimulation in ipsilesional of the visual cortex causes contralesional side neglect. It is the disorder of attention of one side caused by disruption of the visual cortex is evident from the cases like right parietal lobe stroke leads to neglect for the left side of the visual field. Sometimes neglect might cause failure to eat the food on the left half of their plate though hungry. Neglect person might draw a clock with numbers from 12 to 6 and not the other half of the clock. Extreme cases also seen with half shave or half make-up to the non-neglected side.All these support that visual neglect is not due to sensation issue rather it is a neuropsychological perception problem.