Objective: To explore the attentional bias in unilateral spatial neglect (USN) patients.
Methods: The grey discriminant test was conducted on 12 right-brain-damaged patients with USN (USN+), 12 right-brain-damaged patients with no evidence of USN (USN-) and 20 health controls (HC). They were matched for age, years of education, mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores and handedness. And all patients were recruited from First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. The attentional deviation scores were compared between three groups.
Results: The differences in scores of neglect tests for the USN+, USN- and HC groups were significant (Albert test: USN+ group -0.56 ± 0.39, USN- group 0.00 ± 0.00, HC group 0.00 ± 0.00, F((2, 41)) = 33.708, P < 0.001; line bisection test: USN+ group 0.28 ± 0.29, USN- group 0.03 ± 0.04, HC group -0.02 ± 0.04, F((2, 41)) = 14.527, P < 0.001; clock drawing by memory: USN+ group 3.58 ± 4.03, USN- group 0.08 ± 0.29, HC group 0.00 ± 0.00, F((2, 41)) = 12.558, P < 0.001; daisy copying: USN+ group 0.83 ± 0.65, USN- group 0.13 ± 0.23, HC group 0.00 ± 0.00, F((2, 41)) = 21.621, P < 0.001). The comparative results of lesion locations showed that USN+ patients were predominantly related to lesions in temporal-parietal junction. The attentional deviation scores for the USN+, USN- and HC groups were 0.92 ± 0.11, 0.41 ± 0.12 and -0.28 ± 0.15 respectively. The difference was significant (F((2, 41)) = 334.324, P < 0.001). There was with a small leftward bias in the HC group and a rightward bias in the USN+ and USN- groups. LSD test revealed that the USN+ group displayed a rightward bias much strongly than the USN- group (P < 0.001). And the results of grey discriminant test were consistent with the neglect symptoms.
Conclusions: The USN patients show a marked attentional bias toward the right side of space. And it may be attributed to the dysfunction of temporal-parietal junction.