Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityBrain damage produces substantial and enduring disability. Recovery is limited because the neural substrates that underlie functional compensation are not fully understood.
The cat model of visuo-spatial neglect has been highly successful in revealing both the effects of brain damage and the nature of recovery. Data from this animal model have supported the idea that the effects of unilateral brain damage extend to the intact hemisphere, where cerebral areas are hypothesized to be disinhibited. This disinhibition is thought to interfere with recovery, and deactivation of discrete regions in the contralesional hemisphere have been shown to produce recovery in a standard perimetry task (Payne et al., 2003). However, functional studies of the passive/resting state have shown limited effects of lesion in the activity of contralesional cerebral areas (Rushmore et al., 2006). The goal of this study was to tests the hypothesis that hemispheric asymmetry in brain damage would be accentuated while the animal was performing the perimetry task. [TRUNCATED
