Spatial neglect is a disorder of space-related behaviour. It is characterized by failure to explore the side of space contralateral to a brain lesion, or to react or respond to stimuli or subjects located on this side. Research on spatial neglect and related disorders has developed rapidly in recent years. These advances have been made as a result of neuropsychological studies of patients with brain damage, behavioural studies of animal models, as well as through functional neurophysiological experiments and functional neuroimaging. The Cognitive and Neural Bases of Spatial Neglect provides an overview of this wide-ranging field of scientific endeavour, providing a cohesive synthesis of the most recent observations and results. As well as being a fascinating clinical phenomenon, the study of spatial neglect helps us to understand normal mechanisms of directing and maintaining spatial attention and is relevant to the contemporary search for the cerebral correlates of conscious experience, voluntary action and the nature of personal identity itself.
The book is divided into seven sections covering the anatomical and neurophysiological bases of the disorder, frameworks of neglect, perceptual and motor factors, the relation to attention, the cognitive processes involved, and strategies for rehabilitation. Chapters have been written by a team of the leading international experts in this field. This will be essential reading for neuropsychologists, neurologists, neurophysiologists, cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists.
Indice testuale
PART 1: HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION ; 1.1 Spatial neglect ; PART 2: NEURAL BASES OF NEGLECT ; 2.1 Functional anatomy of attention and neglect: from neurons to networks ; 2.2 Neglect in monkeys: effect of permanent and reversible lesions ; 2.3 Posterior parietal networks encoding visual space ; 2.4 Cortical substrates of visuospatial awareness outside the classical dorsal stream of visual processing ; PART 3: FRAMEWORKS OF NEGLECT ; 3.1 What is 'left' when all is said and done? Spatial coding and hemispatial neglect ; 3.2 The exploration of space and objects in neglect ; 3.3 Coding near and far space ; 3.4 Visual peripersonal space in humans ; PART 4: PERCEPTUAL AND MOTOR FACTORS ; 4.1 Space anisometry in unilateral neglect ; 4.2 Perceptual and visuomotor processing in spatial neglect ; 4.3 Spatial anisometry and representational release in neglect ; 4.4 Perceptual and motor interaction in unilateral spatial neglect ; 4.5 The contribution of retinotopic and multimodal coding of space to horizontal space misrepresentation in neglect and hemianopia ; 4.6 Illusions in neglect, illusions of neglect ; 4.7 Navigation in neglect patients ; PART 5: RELATION OF NEGLECT TO ATTENTION ; 5.1 The neurobehavioral analysis of visuospatial attention in the rat ; 5.2 The neural mechanisms of attentional control ; 5.3 Two neural systems for visual orienting, and the pathophysiology of unilateral spatial neglect ; 5.4 Mapping spatial attention with reaction time in neglect patients ; 5.5 Spatial extinction and its relation to mechanisms of normal attention ; PART 6: COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN NEGLECT ; 6.1 Unconscious processing in neglect ; 6.2 Primary sensory deficits after right brain damage - an attentional disorder by any other name? ; 6.3 Spatial, temporal and form binding effects in vision: the contribution from extinction ; 6.4 The role of spatial working memory deficits in pathological search by neglect patients ; PART 7: REHABILITATION OF PATIENTS WITH NEGLECT ; 7.1 Cognitive routes to the rehabilitation of unilateral neglect ; 7.2 Reducing spatial neglect by visual and other sensory manipulations: non-cognitive (physiological) routes to the rehabilitation of a cognitive disorder
