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Environment and object mental images in patients with representational neglect: Two case reports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2010

LIANA PALERMO ,
RAFFAELLA NORI ,
LAURA PICCARDI ,
FIORELLA GIUSBERTI  and
CECILIA GUARIGLIA
LIANA PALERMO*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Psicologia-39, “Sapienza” Università di Roma, Rome, Italy Centro Ricerche di Neuropsicologia, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
RAFFAELLA NORI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
LAURA PICCARDI
Affiliation:
Centro Ricerche di Neuropsicologia, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Università degli Studi dell’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy
FIORELLA GIUSBERTI
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
CECILIA GUARIGLIA
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Psicologia-39, “Sapienza” Università di Roma, Rome, Italy Centro Ricerche di Neuropsicologia, I.R.C.C.S. Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Liana Palermo, Dipartimento di Psicologia 39, Facoltà Psicologia 1, Sapienza Università di Roma, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Italy. E-mail: liana.palermo@uniroma1.it
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to shed light on the nature of the imagery deficits in two patients with representational neglect and to determine whether representational neglect is affected by the content of the mental images the patients have to generate, inspect and manipulate. In particular, we submitted two patients with different types of representational neglect to a battery of visual mental imagery tests to assess the different kinds of imagery processes. We found that Patient 1, whose performance was asymmetrical on the O’Clock Test, performed poorly on tasks involving the mental generation, inspection and manipulation of objects but showed no deficit on tasks involving the mental generation, inspection and manipulation of environments. On the other hand, Patient 2, whose performance was asymmetrical on the Familiar Squares Description Test, performed poorly on tasks involving the mental generation, inspection and manipulation of environments, but not on tasks involving the mental generation, inspection and manipulation of objects. Our results demonstrate that environments and objects in the imagery domain can be represented separately and can be selectively affected by damage following brain lesions. (JINS, 2010, 16, 921–932.)

Keywords

Mental imageryImagery neglectVisuo-spatial working memoryHuman navigationObject mental representationHemispatial neglect
Type
Research Articles
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , September 2010 , pp. 921 - 932
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2010

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