ABSTRACT
Unilateral neglect, also called unilateral hemispatial neglect or hemispatial inattention (Friedland & Weinstein, 1977; Heilman, Watson, & Valenstein, 1985), is a neurobehavioral disorder in which patients fail to orient or respond to stimuli or events appearing in the hemispace contralateral to the side of the lesion. In its most extreme form, neglect may present as an aberration of behavior with patients showing a complete deviation of the head and eyes toward the ipsilesional side (Bisiach & Vallar, 1988). In milder forms of the disorder, neglect may not be overtly apparent but may still be elicited on tasks such as drawing or line bisection (Black, Vu, Martin, & Szalai, 1990). Figure 7.1 contains examples of the performance of two patients with neglect when given pictures of a daisy and a clock for copying.
