Line bisection and unilateral visual neglect in patients with neurologic impairment
Schenkenberg, T.; Bradford, D.C.; Ajax, E.T.
Neurology 30(5): 509-517
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-3878 PMID: 7189256 Document Number: 161633
Unilateral visual neglect is a common symptom or sign in patients with lesions of the nondominant hemisphere. Several techniques are used to demonstrate visual neglect. One technique, asking a patient to bisect a horizontal line and expecting an estimate of center away from the side neglected, has been used for over 70 yr without statistical evaluation. A formnal evaluation of this method was conducted. Under special conditions, line-bisection performance discriminated between patients with right-hemisphere lesions and patients with diffuse lesions, patients with left-hemisphere lesions and hospital controls. When used to investigate visual neglect in an individual patient, the line-bisection test should be given in conjunction with other complementary procedures such as symmetric drawings and the Memory-for-Designs Test.