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Abstract:
Abstract: It was investigated whether three techniques
previously used, on different patient groups, to dissociate
perceptual from premotor neglect would categorise individual
neglect patients in the same way. This proved not the case. The
majority of our 12 neglect patients tested were classified into the
perceptual neglect group by the landmark task, often in direct
contrast to the results of the overhead and the pulley device
techniques which classified more patients as premotor. The landmark
task required a simple pointing response only and thus proved less
sensitive to premotor factors, in contrast to both the pulley and
overhead techniques which required visuo-spatially paradox
movements (a leftward movement had to be made to achieve a right
bisection response). Those two techniques were thus far more likely
to categorise even patients with only a mild abnormality as
premotor. However, there was also a significant number of patients
categorised differently in each combination of techniques
indicating that the individual classification changed depending on
the test used. It seems therefore also reasonable to assume that
the majority of neglect patients actually have both perceptual and
premotor tendencies and that these are picked up to varying degrees
by the different tasks.
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