Left visual spatial neglect is both environment‐centered and body‐centered

Abstract

To determine whether the left space that is neglected after right hemisphere lesions is body centered or environment centered, we asked patients with right hemisphere stroke and normal controls to report the contents of spatial arrays of objects or words, either while seated or while reclining on their side. The reclining posture eliminated the alignment of the vertical axis of the body with the vertical axis of the environment. Patients made fewer reports to the body left, but also fewer reports to the environment left, independent of body position. This suggests that a cerebral hemisphere directs attention not only relative to the body midline axis, but also relative to an environmental reference frame.