Pierson-Savage J M, Bradshaw J L, Bradshaw J A, Nettleton N C
Department of Psychology, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia.
Brain. 1988 Dec;111 ( Pt 6):1531-45. doi: 10.1093/brain/111.6.1531.
Patients with left hemispatial neglect resulting from right hemisphere damage performed a vibrotactile reaction time (RT) task with the stimulated and responding (right) limb placed either ipsilaterally in right hemispace, or across the midline in contralateral (left) hemispace. In 8 patients who had undergone little or no rehabilitative training, responses made on the left were very much slower (by an average of 45 ms) than responses made on the right. Four out of 5 rehabilitated patients who had been taught compensatory strategies to overcome their difficulty in attending to events on the left, and who were tested with eyes open, were faster on the left, a pattern opposite to the small (9 ms) but significant right-side advantage shown by normal subjects. However, when 4 of the rehabilitated patients were tested with their eyes closed, their performance reverted to that shown before rehabilitation, that is, a substantial left-side disadvantage. Overt and covert attentional strategies and spatial asymmetries in normal subjects and patients with unilateral attention deficits are discussed. The vibrotactile RT task provides a promising method for quantifying disability during the various phases of the neglect syndrome.
因右半球损伤导致左侧半空间忽视的患者进行了一项振动触觉反应时间（RT）任务，受刺激和做出反应的（右侧）肢体要么同侧放置于右半空间，要么越过中线放置于对侧（左侧）半空间。在8名几乎没有接受过康复训练或未接受过康复训练的患者中，对左侧做出的反应比对右侧做出的反应慢得多（平均慢45毫秒）。5名接受过康复训练的患者中，有4名患者学习了补偿策略以克服他们在关注左侧事件方面的困难，并且在睁眼状态下接受测试，他们在左侧的反应更快，这一模式与正常受试者表现出的虽小（9毫秒）但显著的右侧优势相反。然而，当4名接受过康复训练的患者闭眼接受测试时，他们的表现恢复到康复前的状态，即存在明显的左侧劣势。文中讨论了正常受试者和单侧注意力缺陷患者的显性和隐性注意力策略以及空间不对称性。振动触觉RT任务为量化忽视综合征各个阶段的残疾程度提供了一种很有前景的方法。
