Affiliations: Department of Psychology, University of Rome "La
Sapienza", Neuropsychological Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia,
Rome
Note: [] Corresponding author: Prof. Luigi Pizzamiglio, MD, Department of
Psychology, University "La Sapienza", Via dei Marsi, 78, 00100 Roma, Italy.
E-mail: luigi.Pizzamiglio@uniroma1.it
Abstract: Purpose: The aim of the present paper is to review several studies
which assessed the validity of a visuo-spatial training for the rehabilitation
of neglect patients. In addition two peripheral stimulations (TENS and
Optokinetic Stimulation) have been studied to assess the improvements of
neglect disorders when used in combination with the visuo-spatial training.
Also we analyzed the potential effect of training for attention on neglect and,
viceversa, the effect of visuo-spatial training on attentional impairments.
Methods: the goals have been investigated by both group studies and
descriptions of single cases. Results: The visuo-spatial training produced significant
improvements on the performance of neglect patients which generalized to every
day living situations: the results showed to be stable over time and had
positive effects on a variety of other neurological impairments. It was also
shown that the improvements are confined to tasks involving spatial exploration
of extrapersonal space, but did not extend to other neglect disorders, such as
representational and personal neglect. The use of peripheral stimulations, at
variance with other studies in the literature, did not add any advantage as
compared to the improvements produced by the visuo-spatial training. No
transfer between training for neglect and attention was observed. Conclusions: the present review pointed out that neglect disorders
can be improved in a clinically meaningful way: the studies described also
showed some limitations and proposed the need of further researches in order to
extend the improvements to several other aspects of the neglect syndrome.
