Neglect of the representational space: demonstration by mental evocation of the map of France
Rode, G.; Perenin, M.T.; Boisson, D.
Revue Neurologique (Paris) 151(3): 161-164
1995
ISSN/ISBN: 0035-3787 PMID: 7676151 Document Number: 446561
Neglect of the representational space has been shown in 8 patients asked to evoke mentally, the map of France and to name as many towns as possible successively on each side of a vertical axis splitting the map in two equivalent halves. They had first to imagine the map with an axis in the south-north direction and then with an axis in the reverse direction (north-south). The results were similar to those reported by Bisiach and Luzzatti (1979). They reflect a disturbance of the mechanisms involved in conscious representation of space. In addition we report on the effects of vestibular stimulation on the reversibility of representational neglect in 3 patients. These preliminary results provide support for the idea that vestibular stimulation would play centrally by restoring the symmetry of the internal representation of egocentric space.