ABSTRACT
In 1944, Andrew Paterson and Oliver Zangwill published a report describing a patient who had suffered a penetrating wound of the right cerebral hemisphere. In the months following his injury, the patient exhibited behaviours which today would be characterised as reflecting a lateralised disorder of spatial cognition known as unilateral neglect. Unlike many classic cases in neuropsychology, the patient studied by Paterson and Zangwill (1944) was not the first to exhibit a disorder hitherto undescribed in the scientific literature. Indeed, workers such as Hughlings Jackson (1876/ 1932), Poppelreuter (1917/1990), Holmes (1918), and Brain (1941) had all described patients with disorders of spatial orientation and attention following either unilateral or bilateral damage. Unfortunately, these early reports were typically of patients with extensive lesions who suffered from a conglomeration of distinct functional impairments. Of potentially greater concern, however, is that these early reports were often based upon relatively brief neurological tests and anecdotal observations, the results of which were rarely quantified or subjected to objective analysis. The case reported by Paterson and Zangwill represents a paradigm shift towards objectivity, both in the approach to assessment of patients with unilateral neglect and in the interpretation of their preserved and impaired capacities.
