Spontaneous and induced recovery of visual hemineglect during cooling inactivation of middle suprasylvian cortex in the cat

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Geeraerts, Sarah | Vandenbussche, Erik

Affiliations: Laboratorium voor Neuropsychologie, K.U. Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium.

Note: [] Correspondence to: Dr. Erik Vandenbussche, Laboratorium voor Neuro-psychologie, K.U. Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Phone: +32-16-34-57-45; Fax: +32-16-34-59-93; Erik.Vandenbussche@med.kuleuven.ac.be

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to observe recovery of orienting deficits during unilateral and bilateral cooling inactivation of the middle suprasylvian (MS) cortex. Unilateral MS cooling resulted in a contralateral hemineglect (no orienting responses towards stimuli in the contracooled hemifield) that spontaneously recovered within less than 40 min of continued cooling. Moreover, the brain changes responsible for this recovery were partially retained and cumulated over successive cooling days. Bilateral MS cooling indicated that recovery of neglect can be induced by a restoration of the imbalance between activity levels of structures in both hemispheres and revealed an interaction between spontaneous and induced recovery of neglect. These results show that considerable changes may occur in the brain during cooling for rather short periods. Possible explanations for these changes are discussed.

Keywords: cooling, plasticity, neglect, orienting behavior, perimetry

Journal: Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 14, no. 4, pp. 237-250, 1999