A Study Of The Neural Mechamism Of Visuospatial Neglect And Pseudoneglect

Objective: 1. To test normal young subjects with the traditional horizontal line bisection tasks, the new type 'obliquely black in contrast with white wide line' bisection tasks, and the horizontally oriented trapzoidal line bisection tasks so as to understand whether or not there is pseudoneglect phenomenon. 2. To compare the new type 'obliquely black in contrast with white wide line' bisection test with the traditional line bisection test in order to observe whether there are any differences between them in selecting out neglect sufferers from cerebrovascular disease (CVD) patients. 3. To see whether there are significant differences among three groups, between gender, and between left and right hand with the mentioned three line bisection tasks. Method: To test 30 normal young subjects, 20 CVD patients, and 20 normal subjects who are matched with the CVD patients in age and sex with the traditional horizontal line bisection tasks, the new type 'obliquely black in contrast with white wide line' bisection tasks, and the horizontally oriented trapzoidal line bisectiontasks, respectively. Results: 1. With the traditional line bisection tasks and the new type 'obliquely black in contrast with white wide line' bisection tasks, the normal young subjects showed a leftward deviation, t-test revealed that mean deviations were significantly different from zero, which showed pseudoneglect phenomenon; the CVD patients produced a rightward error, t-test revealed that mean errors were also significantly different from zero, which indicated neglect tendency; mean deviations of the normal control group were between the normal young subjects and the CVD patients . 2. A t-test revealed that there were highly significant differences between mean deviations of the normal young group and the CVD patient group; mean deviations of the normal young group were significantly different from the normal control group; mean deviations of the CVD patients group were no significantly different from the normal control group. 3. Two neglect sufferers were selected out successfully only with the new type 'obliquely black in contrast with white wide line' bisection test. 4. There were no significant differences between mean deviations of men and women, between left and right hand deviations in three groups. 5. No significant difference was found between mean deviations of left and right hemisphere lesion in the CVD patients group. 6. No significant difference was found that among mean deviations generally in three groups in horizontally oriented trapzoidal line bisection, besides the direction of deviations in three groups was congruent. Conclusion: 1. To test normal young subjects with the line bisection tasks for the first time in our country, the results of the present study find that there is pseudoneglect phenomenon, which is similar with external research results. 2. The newtype 'obliquely black in contrast with white wide line' bisection test may be superior to the traditional line bisection test for the selection rate of neglect sufferers. 3. Young subjects err to left in line bisection while older subjects tend to err to the right of veridical center. 4. The twin phenomena of neglect and pseudoneglect each reflect an asymmetry in the deployment of spatial attention into right and left hemispace, reflecting an underlying neurological asymmetry between the right and left hemispheres. Neglect and pseudoneglect are often assumed to possess a fundamental theoretical and neurological relationship to each other.