163 research outputs found

    Attention in neglect and extinction: Assessing the degree of correspondence between visual and auditory impairments using matched tasks

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    Claims have been made for associated degrees of impairment on both visual and auditory performance in unilateral neglect and extinction. Since this evidence is primarily based on different tests in each modality, it is difficult to properly quantify the degree of association between performance in vision and audition. The current study compares visual and auditory extinction and temporal order judgments (TOJs) in two cases with clinical visual neglect. Stimuli in both modalities were precisely matched in their temporal and spatial parameters. The results reveal a mixed pattern of association between different auditory tests and their visual counterparts. This suggests that associations between visual and auditory neglect can occur but these are neither obligatory nor pervasive. Instead, our data support models of spatial impairment in neglect and extinction that acknowledge differences in the contribution of spatial information to performance in each modality in responses to changing task demands

    Hands behind your back: effects of arm posture on tactile attention in the space behind the body

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    Previous research has shown that tactile-spatial information originating from the front of the body is remapped from an anatomical to an external-spatial coordinate system, guided by the availability of visual information early in development. Comparably little is known about regions of space for which visual information is not typically available, such as the space behind the body. This study tests for the first time the electrophysiological correlates of the effects of proprioceptive information on tactile-attentional mechanisms in the space behind the back. Observers were blindfolded and tactually cued to detect infrequent tactile targets on either their left or right hand and to respond to them either vocally or with index finger movements. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to tactile probes on the hands in order to explore tactile-spatial attention when the hands were either held close together or far apart behind the observer's back. Results show systematic effects of arm posture on tactile-spatial attention different from those previously found for front space. While attentional selection is typically more effective for hands placed far apart than close together in front space, we found that selection occurred more rapidly for close than far hands behind the back, during both covert attention and movement preparation tasks. This suggests that proprioceptive space may ‘wrap’ around the body, following the hands as they extend horizontally from the front body midline to the centre of the back
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