Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Neuroscience

Awareness of space

Nature volume 411, pages 903–904 (2001)Cite this article

Damage to particular parts of the brain can cause spatial confusion and even eliminate awareness of areas of space around the body. The brain regions responsible for spatial awareness, however, are still under debate.

Certain types of brain damage can lead people to suffer from profound spatial disorientation and an inability to use spatial information to direct their movements — symptoms first described in detail near the beginning of the last century1,2. Some of the people who suffer from such damage, to the right posterior parietal lobe of the brain's cortex, show a phenomenon called hemispatial neglect3, whereby they lose their awareness of the half of the space around them that lies opposite to the brain lesion. Someone with hemispatial neglect might shave only half of his face, dress just half of his body, or, when copying a picture, draw only one side of it.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: The human brain.

References

  1. Holmes, G. Br. J. Ophthalmol. 2, 449–516 (1918).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Balint, R. Monatschr. Psychiatr. Neurol. 25, 51–81 (1909).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. De Renzi, E. Disorders of Space Exploration and Cognition (Wiley, New York, 1982).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Karnath, H.-O, Ferber, S. & Himmelbach, M. Nature 411, 950–953 (2001).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ettlinger, G. & Kalsbeck, J. E. J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 25, 256–268 (1962).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lamotte, R. H. & Acuna, C. Brain Res. 139, 309–326 (1978).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Mountcastle, V. B., Lynch, J. C., Georgopoulos, A., Sakata, H. & Acuna, C. J. Neurophys. 38, 871–908 (1975).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Snyder, L. H., Batista, A. P. & Andersen, R. A. Nature 386, 167–170 (1997).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Sakata, H. & Taira, M. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 4, 847–856 (1994).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Goodale, M. A. et al. Curr. Biol. 4, 604–610 (1994).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Husain, M. & Kennard, C. J. Neurol. 243, 652–657 (1996).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Moore, T. & Fallah, M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 98, 1273–1276 (2001).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Psychology, Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544-1010, New Jersey, USA

    Michael S. A. Graziano

Authors
  1. Michael S. A. Graziano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael S. A. Graziano.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Graziano, M. Awareness of space. Nature 411, 903–904 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35082182

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/35082182

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing