Unilateral spatial neglect: technics of rehabilitation

Abstract

Neglect is the major cognitive deficit that results from a lesion on the right cerebral hemisphere. The clinical manifestations are very heterogeneous and bring to the patient serious repercussions on his quality of life. The fact that the more evident manifestations recover spontaneously during the first 10 days after lesion, could explain the generalized idea, among health staff, that neglect has always a favorable prognostic. In reality, the manifestations of neglect can persist, although subtly, for a long period. That’s why the implementation of programs of rehabilitation is so important. The first techniques of rehabilitation for neglect were developed, intuitively, from the clinical practice. Later, a training of the visuospatial scanning was developed on a systematic way. Although this type of intervention may not permit a generalization for functional activities, is useful for training specific activities. A number of other techniques have been implemented to reduce the manifestations of neglect; however, the results are not conclusive.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v16i1.474