Background

One of the most fascinating, albeit tragic, neuropsychological conditions arises when there is damage to the orienting attention network in the parietal lobe. When a stroke or some other neurological insult affects the right posterior parietal lobe, a condition called hemifield neglect or unilateral visual neglect may arise. This condition almost always occurs when the right parietal lobe is damaged, leading to a deficit in the left visual world. In a handful of patients, one can see neglect of the right side of the world from left parietal damage, but this is much less common than a left-field deficit from right parietal damage. We define hemifield neglect or unilateral visual neglect as a condition in which a person fails to attend to stimuli on one side of the visual world (usually the left) as a consequence of neurological damage to the posterior parietal lobe.

Proceed to the next tabe to voie a patient with visual neglect.

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