HEMISPATIAL NEGLECT: When half the world disappears …

Doesn't it seem peculiar saying about loss of perception of the surrounding half of the world? If it does, how can you then imagine the unusual reality of those who develop Hemispatial neglect? This unusual reality comes from the inability of patients with neglect syndrome to respond to events occurring in exactly one half of their world, resulting in their weird behaviors that reflect their deficit in processing and interaction with data from this half as if it is “neglected” by them. Nature and Symptoms of the Syndrome: Hemispatial neglect is a neurological condition follows a damage in definite parts of the brain hemispheres. Patients with neglect shows symptoms of lateralized inattention and failing to report information about scenes from one side of their center of gaze. The manifestations of neglect syndrome can be so bizarre that they are hard to believe if not directly observed. Milder cases are less observable. However, symptoms can develop in sever cases to reach complete ignorance -not just inattention- for one side, and acting as if half the universe no longer exists. This may be more understandable if you know that patients with neglect may shave only one side of their face, brush the teeth on only one side of their mouse, eat from only one side of the plate and initiate movement to just one side. If patients are asked to point to the midline of their body, they point too far to only one side. In case of neglect syndrome, the brain acts as a computer system that receives inputs without processing them. For instance, patients can see everything but they aren't perceiving everything; because brain regions involved in perception of visual information are damaged. This may be better understood if we compared ‘neglect syndrome' to ‘Hemianopia'. This may be better understood if we compared ‘neglect syndrome' to ‘Hemianopia'. Both disorders lead patients to miss information on the left. Patients with hemianopia miss information on the left; because they cannot see it; due to a cut in the visual field so that visual information doesn't transfer from the retina to the occipital lope. While patients with neglect miss information due to an attentional deficit; they see, but they don't perceive the visual information. Neglect syndrome is a serious condition that requires increased awareness among health practitioners and needs more understand for causes and symptoms. Not only the prevalence and debilitating nature of neglect are what create the need for awareness, but also the fact that neglect syndrome is associated with a range of comorbid conditions including some neurodegenerative disease, strokes and hemiplegia.

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