Abstract
A large proportion of right-hemisphere stroke patients show hemispatial neglect—a neurological deficit of perception, attention, representation, and/or performing actions within their left-sided space1, inducing many functional debilitating effects on everyday life, and responsible for poor functional recovery and ability to benefit from treatment2. The frequent parietal locus of the lesion producing neglect reflects the impairment of coordinate transformation used by the nervous system to represent extrapersonal space. Given that adaptation to a visual distortion can provide an efficient way to stimulate neural structures responsible for the transformation of sensorimotor coordinates, the aim of our study was to investigate the effect of prism adaptation on various neglect symptoms, including the pathological shift of the subjective midline to the right. All patients exposed to the optical shift of the visual field to the right were improved on their manual body-midline demonstration and on classical neuropsychological tests. Unlike other physiological manipulations used to improve neglect, this improvement lasted for at least two hours after prism removal and thus could be useful in rehabilitation programmes. The positive effect found for both sensorimotor and more cognitive spatial functions suggests that they share or depend on a common level of space representation linked to multisensory integration.
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
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Heilman, K. M., Watson, R. T. & Valenstein, E. in Clinical Neuropsychology (eds Heilman, K. M. & Valenstein, E.) 243–293 (Oxford University Press, New York, (1985)).
Halligan, P. W., Marshall, J. C. & Wade, D. T. Visuospatial neglect: underlying factors and test sensitivity. Lancet 2, 908–911 (1989).
Rubens, A. B. Caloric stimulation and unilateral visual neglect. Neurology 35, 1019–1024 (1985).
Rode, G. & Perenin, M. T. Temporary remission of representational hemineglect through vestibular stimulation. Neuroreport 5, 869–872 (1994).
Karnath, H. O. Subjective body orientation in neglect and the interactive contribution of neck muscle proprioception and vestibular stimulation. Brain 117, 1001–1012 (1994).
Pizzamiglio, L., Frasca, R., Guariglia, C., Incoccia, C. & Antonucci, G. Effects of optokinetic stimulation in patients with visual neglect. Cortex 26, 535–540 (1990).
Walker, R., Young, A. W. & Lincoln, N. B. Eye patching and the rehabilitation of visual neglect. Neuropsychol. Rehab. 6, 219–231 (1996).
Perenin, M. T. in Parietal Lobe Contribution to Orientation in 3D Space (eds Thier, P. & Karnath, H. O.) 298–308 (Springer, Heidelberg, (1997)).
Redding, G. M. & Wallace, B. Adaptive spatial alignment and strategic perceptual-motor control. J.Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 22, 379–394 (1996).
Rossetti, Y., Koga, K. & Mano, T. Prismatic displacement of vision induces transient changes in the timing of eye-hand coordination. Percept. Psychophys. 54, 355–364 (1993).
Sugita, Y. Global plasticity in adult visual cortex following reversal of visual input. Nature 380, 523–526 (1996).
Halligan, P. W. & Cockburn, J. M. Cognitive sequelae of stroke: visuospatial and memory disorders. Crit. Rev. Phys. Rehab. Med. 5, 57–81 (1993).
Schenckenberg, T., Bradford, D. C. & Ajax, E. T. Line bisection with neurologic impairment. Neurology 30, 509–517 (1980).
Albert, M. L. Asimple test for visual neglect. Neurology 23, 658–664 (1973).
Gainotti, G., Messerli, P. & Tissot, R. Qualitative analysis of unilateral spatial neglect in relation to laterality of cerebral lesions. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiat. 35, 545–550 (1972).
Chokron, S. & Bartolomeo, P. Patterns of dissociation between left hemineglect and deviation of the egocentric reference. Neuropsychologia 35, 1503–1508 (1997).
Farné, A., Ponti, F. & Ladavas, E. In search of biased egocentric reference frames in neglect. Neuropsychologia 247, 611–623 (1998).
Vallar, G., Guariglia, C. & Rusconi, M. L. in Parietal Lobe Contribution to Orientation in 3D Space (eds Thier, P. & Karnath, H. O.) 555–579 (Springer, Heidelberg, (1997)).
Clower, D. M.et al. Role of posterior parietal cortex in the recalibration of visually guided reaching. Nature 383, 618–621 (1996).
Rossi, P. W., Kheyfets, S. & Reding, M. J. Fresnel prisms improve visual perception in stroke patients with homonymous hemianopia or unilateral visual neglect. Neurology 40, 1597–1599 (1990).
Coello, Y., Orliaguet, J.-P. & Prablanc, C. Pointing movement in an artificial perturbing inertial field: aprospective paradigm for motor control study. Neuropsychologia 34, 879–892 (1996).
Jeannerod, M. & Rossetti, Y. in Visual Perceptual Defects (ed. Kennard, C.) 439–460 (Tindall, London, (1993)).
Sakata, H. & Taira, M. Parietal control of hand action. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 4, 847–856 (1994).
Mattingley, J., Hussain, M., Rorden, C., Kennard, C. & Driver, J. Motor role of human inferior parietal lobe revealed in unilateral neglect patients. Nature 392, 179–182 (1998).
Acknowledgements
We thank M. Cabanac, D. Clower, L. Goffart, P. Halligan, J. Mattingley, C. Prablanc, A. Vighetto for their comments on the manuscript, and P. Monjaud and C. Urquizar for technical assistance. This work was supported by the Région Rhône-Alpes, France, by the Hospices Civils de Lyon and by Elypses. A.F. was awarded a predoctoral fellowship by the European Neuroscience Programme, European Science Foundation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary Information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rossetti, Y., Rode, G., Pisella, L. et al. Prism adaptation to a rightward optical deviation rehabilitates left hemispatial neglect. Nature 395, 166–169 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/25988
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/25988
This article is cited by
-
Direction of visual shift and hand congruency enhance spatial realignment during visuomotor adaptation
Experimental Brain Research (2023)
-
Study protocol of transcranial electrical stimulation at alpha frequency applied during rehabilitation: A randomized controlled trial in chronic stroke patients with visuospatial neglect
BMC Neurology (2022)
-
Sensorimotor adaptation in VR: magnitude and persistence of the aftereffect increase with the number of interactions
Virtual Reality (2022)
-
Mini-review: The Role of the Cerebellum in Visuomotor Adaptation
The Cerebellum (2022)
-
Pain reduction by inducing sensory-motor adaptation in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS PRISMA): protocol for a double-blind randomized controlled trial
BMC Neurology (2020)
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.