Perceptual Assessment of Spatial Neglect Within a Virtual Environment

Spatial neglect is commonly assessed using batteries of "paper-and-pencil" tests (e.g., line bisection). However, these tests have several drawbacks due to their fixed and repetitive nature. Although neglect has been most commonly assessed and studied in the horizontal spatial dimension, recent studies have shown neglect along the radial and vertical axes of space as well. We have developed and tested a virtual reality based assessment tool for visual spatial neglect in multiple spatial dimensions. The performance of two stroke patients with neglect, during a target detection task, was compared to that of six healthy control subjects and a stroke patient without neglect. Our initial results indicated a significant difference between the neglect patients and the control subjects in all three dimensions, for both the reaction time and detection accuracy. Moreover, the neglect patients exhibited an obvious left as well as near neglect, mostly in pripersonal space. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of using virtual reality based assessment tool for characterizing multidimensional visual neglect.