ИСТИНА

The common outcome after a right hemisphere stroke is unilateral spatial neglect. These patients demonstrate visual attentional deficits towards to the contralesional side. The aim of our pilot study was to investigate oculomotor signs of neglect using a new experimental paradigm. Six patients (mean age 54.5±9.8) and twelve age-matched controls participated in the study. Patients had subacute phase of stroke (1 hemorrhagic, 5 ischemic) and were diagnosed with neglect by a neuropsychologist. Patients performed an oculomotor task in which they had to select and fix a target stimulus (a blue star) appearing simultaneously with a distracting factor (a black dot) to the left or right of it. Eye movements were recorded at 250 Hz sample rate. Patients showed a higher error rate when the target appeared on the left, although most patients made self-correction within two seconds after choosing a distractor. In addition, patients showed a higher delay to the appearance of the target on the left compared to the right. All patients needed more than one fixation to fix the target, while the control group needed one. Our experimental results demonstrate oculomotor signs of neglect. Future studies will add more quantitative results and may be applicable in clinical practice.