Patients suffering from spatial neglect after right-hemisphere strokes exhibit striking disruptions of attention and spatial awareness, often behaving as if the left side of their world no longer exists. This syndrome often results from extensive brain damage and this can involve many component deficits, some of which do not only affect the left side of space. The various component deficits, including some that would not cause neglect on their own, can exacerbate neglect when combined. Much recent progress in understanding the neglect syndrome has come from relating the patients' deficits to issues arising from the study of normal attention and normal spatial representation, to physiological findings from animal work on the associated brain regions, and to functional neuroimaging results in both neurologically healthy people and in patients with neglect. This convergent approach has revealed how neglect can affect both conscious perception and spatial exploration while differing from primary sensory or motor deficits. The role of attention and other factors that influence whether or not a particular stimulus will reach the patients' awareness has also been highlighted. Extensive residual abilities have been revealed, along with their neural bases, giving some grounds for optimism about possible rehabilitation of this disabling syndrome and shedding new light on the role of frontoparietal circuits in awareness.