Abstract
In a variety of neurological syndromes, patients may show tacit awareness of stimuli that cannot be consciously recollected or identified1. Such dissociations are the defining characteristic of 'blindsight'2,3; comparable phenomena are seen in some patients with amnesia4 and some with prosopagnosia, a profound impairment of familiar face recognition5. We report here an analogous dissociation between overt and covert perception in a case of visuo-spatial neglect6. The patient, P.S., had sustained right cerebral damage and failed overtly to process information in the hemispace contralateral to lesion. In common with most patients who manifest left-sided neglect, P.S. has a left homonymous hemianopia. Nonetheless, her neglect persists despite free movement of the head and eyes and is thus not a direct consequence of sensory loss in the left visual field. P.S. was presented simultaneously with two line drawings of a house, in one of which the left side was on fire. She judged that the drawings were identical; yet when asked to select which house she would prefer to live in, she reliably chose the house that was not burning.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Schacter, D. L., McAndrews, M. P. & Moscovitch, M. in Thought Without Language (ed. Weiskrantz, L.) 242–278 (Clarendon, Oxford, 1988).
Pöppel, E., Held, R. & Frost, D. Nature 243, 295–296 (1973).
Weiskrantz, L., Warrington, E. K., Sanders, M. D. & Marshall, J. Brain 97, 709–728 (1974).
Milner, B., Corkin, S. & Teuber, H.-L. Neuropsychologia 6, 215–234 (1968).
Bauer, R. M. Neuropsychologia 22, 457–469 (1984).
Jeannerod, M. (ed.) Neuropsychological and Neurophysiological Aspects of Spatial Neglect (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1987).
Kinsbourne, M. & Warrington, E. K. J. Neurol. Neurosur. Psychiat. 25, 339–344 (1962).
Weiskrantz, L. Brain 110, 77–92 (1987).
de Haan, E. H. F., Young, A. W. & Newcombe, F. Cognitive Neuropsychol. 4, 385–415 (1987).
Volpe, B. T., Ledoux, J. E. & Gazzaniga, M. S. Nature 282, 722–724 (1979).
Karnath, H.-O. & Hartje, W. J. Neurol. 234, 180–184 (1987).
Fodor, J. A. The Modularity of Mind (MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Marshall, J., Halligan, P. Blindsight and insight in visuo-spatial neglect. Nature 336, 766–767 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/336766a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/336766a0
This article is cited by
-
Unconscious transformative experience
Synthese (2023)
-
Phylogenetic Distribution and Trajectories of Visual Consciousness: Examining Feinberg and Mallatt’s Neurobiological Naturalism
Journal for General Philosophy of Science (2022)
-
Consciousness and information integration
Synthese (2021)
-
Fleeting Perceptual Experience and the Possibility of Recalling Without Seeing
Scientific Reports (2020)
-
Multiple left-to-right spatial representations of number magnitudes? Evidence from left spatial neglect
Experimental Brain Research (2019)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.