Dissociable Coordinate Frames of Unilateral Spatial Neglect: “Viewer-Centered” Neglect

Detailed analyses of reading and nonlexical tasks by three patients with unilateral spatial neglect (USN) secondary to stroke indicate that the USN in each of these patients affects the left side (contralateral to brain damage) of the viewer, with respect to the viewer's head, mid-sagittal plane of the body, or line of sight. In one case, the neglect was further specified as concerning the left side of the viewer's line of sight (the left half of her residual visual field). Thus, the frame of reference of USN in these three cases appears to have viewer-centered (in at least one case, specifically retinotopic) coordinates. The performance of these patients is contrasted to that of other patients in the literature whose USN appears to have a frame of reference with stimulus-centered or object-centered coordinates. These results are interpreted within a model of visual processing (adapted from Marr, 1980 and others) with at least three coordinate frames. It is argued that USN can affect one or more of these coordinate frames independently.

[1]  A F Monk,et al.  Theoretical Note: Coordinate Systems in Visual Word Recognition , 1985, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[2]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  A framework for interpreting distinct patterns of hemispatial neglect , 1995 .

[3]  L. Buxbaum,et al.  Neglect of chimeric figures: Two halves are better than a whole , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[4]  F. Chédru.  Space representation in unilateral spatial neglect. , 1976, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[5]  M. Albert.  A simple test of visual neglect , 1973, Neurology.

[6]  Glyn W. Humphreys,et al.  Attention to within-object and between-object spatial representations: multiple sites for visual selection , 1994 .

[7]  R Tissot,et al.  Qualitative analysis of unilateral spatial neglect in relation to laterality of cerebral lesions , 1972, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[8]  E K Warrington,et al.  The dissociation of visuospatial neglect and neglect dyslexia. , 1987, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[9]  H. Coslett.  Neglect in vision and visual imagery: a double dissociation. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[10]  A Chatterjee,et al.  Picturing unilateral spatial neglect: viewer versus object centred reference frames. , 1994, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[11]  A. Caramazza,et al.  Spatially Specific Deficits in Processing Graphemic Representations in Reading and Writing , 1995, Brain and Language.

[12]  M. Mesulam.  A cortical network for directed attention and unilateral neglect , 1981, Annals of neurology.

[13]  M. Traub,et al.  Focal dystonia in association with cerebral infarction. , 1982, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[14]  Elizabeth K. Warrington,et al.  A variety of reading disability associated with right hemisphere lesions , 1962 .

[15]  M. Jane Riddoch,et al.  Neglect and the peripheral dyslexias , 1990 .

[16]  A. Young,et al.  Neglect and visual recognition. , 1992, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[17]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Frames of reference for allocating attention to space: Evidence from the neglect syndrome , 1990, Neuropsychologia.

[18]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Levels of representation, co-ordinate frames, and unilateral neglect , 1990 .

[19]  H. Karnath,et al.  Trunk orientation as the determining factor of the 'contralateral' deficit in the neglect syndrome and as the physical anchor of the internal representation of body orientation in space. , 1991, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[20]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Deficit to stimulus-centered, letter shape representations in a case of “unilateral neglect” , 1991, Neuropsychologia.

[21]  J. Zihl.  Eye movement patterns in hemianopic dyslexia. , 1995, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[22]  K M Heilman,et al.  A comparison of the influences of body and environment centred reference frames on neglect. , 1994, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[23]  A. Caramazza.  Cognitive Neuropsychology and Neurolinguistics: Advances in Models of Cognitive Function and Impairment , 1990 .

[24]  Geoffrey E. Hinton.  A Parallel Computation that Assigns Canonical Object-Based Frames of Reference , 1981, IJCAI.

[25]  J. Driver,et al.  Can Visual Neglect Operate in Object-centred Co-ordinates? An Affirmative Single-case Study , 1991 .

[26]  A. Horton,et al.  Handbook of neuropsychology (vol. 1) , 1993 .

[27]  J. Binder,et al.  The topography of callosal reading pathways. A case-control analysis. , 1992, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[28]  M. Gazzaniga,et al.  Disturbances in conceptual space involving language and speech. , 1987, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[29]  A. Hillis,et al.  Unilateral spatial neglect in dissociable frames of reference: a comment on Farah, Brunn, Wong, Wallace, and Carpenter (1990) , 1998, Neuropsychologia.

[30]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Spatially Determined Deficits in Letter and Word Processing , 1991 .

[31]  E K Warrington,et al.  Neglect dysgraphia. , 1983, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[32]  E. Làdavas,et al.  Is the hemispatial deficit produced by right parietal lobe damage associated with retinal or gravitational coordinates? , 1987, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[33]  A. Caramazza,et al.  The Graphemic Buffer and attentional mechanisms , 1989, Brain and Language.

[34]  J. Hornak,et al.  Ocular exploration in the dark by patients with visual neglect , 1992, Neuropsychologia.

[35]  Evelyne Corcos,et al.  Visual Processes in Reading and Reading Disabilities , 1993 .

[36]  E. Renzi,et al.  Hemispheric contribution to exploration of space through the visual and tactile modality. , 1970, Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior.

[37]  G. Rizzolatti,et al.  Neural Circuits for Spatial Attention and Unilateral Neglect , 1987 .

[38]  H. Kucera,et al.  Computational analysis of present-day American English , 1967 .

[39]  Morris Moscovitch,et al.  Coding of Spatial Information in the Somatosensory System: Evidence from Patients with Neglect following Parietal Lobe Damage , 1994, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[40]  J. Feldman.  Four frames suffice: A provisional model of vision and space , 1985, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[41]  Alfonso Caramazza,et al.  Spatial representation of words in the brain implied by studies of a unilateral neglect patient , 1990, Nature.

[42]  D. Marr,et al.  Representation and recognition of the spatial organization of three-dimensional shapes , 1978, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological Sciences.

[43]  J. Riddoch,et al.  Interaction of attentional and lexical processes in neglect dyslexia , 1990 .

[44]  E. Bisiach,et al.  Two basic properties of space representation in the brain: evidence from unilateral neglect. , 1985, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[45]  Morris Moscovitch,et al.  Object-Centered Neglect in Patients with Unilateral Neglect: Effects of Left-Right Coordinates of Objects , 1994, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[46]  Edoardo Bisiach,et al.  Dyschiria. An Attempt at its Systemic Explanation , 1987 .

[47]  K M Heilman,et al.  Directional hypokinesia and hemispatial inattention in neglect. , 1990, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[48]  J. Mattingley,et al.  Impairments of movement execution in unilateral neglect: A kinematic analysis of directional bradyskinesia , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[49]  S. Tipper,et al.  Object-based attentional mechanisms: Evidence from patients with unilateral neglect. , 1994 .

[50]  M. Mozer,et al.  Perceptual and Conceptual Mechanisms in Neglect Dyslexia: Two Contrasting Case Studies , 1990 .

[51]  S. Tipper,et al.  Object-centered not scene-based visual neglect. , 1996, Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance.

[52]  R. Rafal,et al.  Axis-based neglect of visual shapes , 1994, Neuropsychologia.

[53]  Martin Arguin,et al.  Evidence for an Independent Stimuluscentered Spatial Reference Frame from a Case of Visual Hemineglect , 1993, Cortex.

[54]  D. Levine,et al.  Left visual spatial neglect is both environment‐centered and body‐centered , 1987, Neurology.

[55]  G Gainotti,et al.  Mechanisms of unilateral spatial neglect in relation to laterality of cerebral lesions. , 1986, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[56]  Andrew W. Ellis,et al.  "Neglect dyslexia" and the early visual processing of letters in words and nonwords , 1995 .

[57]  Horizontal and Vertical Neglect Dyslexia , 1993, Brain and Language.