One of the most striking disorders of cognition is unilateral
neglect. Patients with this syndrome act as though whole regions
of space contralateral to their lesions do not exist. In
early stages, patients may deny ownership of their contalateral limb
and also neglect parts of their own body. When dressing, they might
not clothe the contralateral side and may fail to groom their hair or shave
parts of their faces on that side.
Right
hemisphere damage is a more common and more severe cause of unilateral
neglect than left hemisphere damage (Chatterjee, 1995). Damage
causing left-sided neglect is usually centred on the inferior parietal lobule
or superior temporal lobe of the right hemisphere. Patients with such
damage ignore events occurring on the left side of space (Bartolomeo &
Chokron, 2002). Patients may even fail to eat the food on the left
side of their plate or bump into obstacles on their left side. Below
is a copied picture of a house drawn by a patient with left unilateral neglect.