Two-dimensional distortion of space representation in unilateral neglect: perceptual and response-related factors

The paper reports the results of an experiment in which left-neglect patients were required to point at the location they judged vertically to correspond (within the frame of the visual stimulus display they were given) with a cue that was variably located along a left-right axis lying proximally or distally with respect to the left-right axis over which they had to give their response. Patients were found to make rightward errors as in a similar, single-case study. The significant positive correlation between those errors and the degree of response bias on a manual-response version of the Milner Landmark Task suggests that rightward pointing errors made by left-neglect patients in conditions such as those set in the present experiment are due to a dysfunction selectively affecting an output-related component of space representation. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.