Patterns of drawing disability in right and left hemispheric patients.

Abstract Two groups of left (N: 100) and of right (N: 100) brain-damaged patients were given a test of copying designs and of copying crosses. Qualitative differences between the two groups were specified and submitted to statistical analysis. Patients with right hemisphere damage showed a tendency to neglect the left half of the models, to orientate the drawings diagonally on the paper, to make gross errors in spatial relations, to overscore lines already drawn and to add material, e.g. signatures and spontaneous drawings, not requested by the investigator. In addition, they showed a “piecemeal’ approach of strategy in copying the models. Patients with left hemispheric lesions on the other hand gave simplified and reduced copies of the drawings, and showed some difficulty in reproducing angles. A tentative interpretation of these differences is advanced.