Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Scientific Correspondence
  • Published:

"Both" means more than "two": localizing and counting in patients with visuospatial neglect

Nature Neuroscience volume 2, pages 783–784 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

We report that in patients with hemispatial neglect after parietal damage, visual awareness critically depends on different attentional demands for enumeration or localization. Neglect patients usually fail to attend to stimuli in the hemifield contralateral to the lesion (contralesional) and 'extinguish' them when simultaneously presented with competing stimuli ipsilateral to the lesion (ipsilesional), even though primary visual pathways are intact, and a contralesional stimulus presented alone is detected. Here we show that contralesional extinction differed when patients enumerated or located stimuli in space. Enumerating only a few (≤ 4) visual elements may exploit 'subitizing' mechanisms independent from spatial attention (unlike 'counting' of more elements), as is the case in normal people1.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Stimuli and results in both tasks.
Figure 2: Vocal response latencies across patients and displays (mean ± s.e.).

References

  1. Trick, L. M. & Pylyshyn, Z. W. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 19, 331–351 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Gilchrist, I. D., Humphreys, G. W. & Riddoch, M. J. Cognit. Psychol. 13, 1223–1249 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Danziger, S., Kingstone, A. & Rafal, R. D. Psychol. Sci. 9, 119–123 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Dehaene, S. & Cohen, L. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 20, 958–975 (1994).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Mattingley, J. B., Davis, G. & Driver, J. Science 275, 671–674 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Vuilleumier, P. & Landis, T. Neuroreport 9, 2481–2484 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Bundesen, C. Psychol. Rev. 97, 523–547 (1990).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Folk, C. L., Egeth, H. & Kwak, H. Percept. Psychophys. 44, 313–320 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Robertson, L., Treisman, A., Friedman-Hill, S. & Grabowecky, M. J. Cognit. Neurosci. 9, 295–317 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Rizzolatti, G. & Berti, A. Rev. Neurol. (Paris) 146, 626–634 (1990).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fryklund, I. Percept. Psychophys. 17, 375–386 (1975).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ward, R., Goodrich, S. & Driver, J. Vis. Cognit. 1, 101–129 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Baylis, G. C. & Driver, J. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 19, 451–470 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Vuilleumier, P., Valenza, N., Perrig, S., Mayer, E. & Landis, T. J. Int. Neuropsychol. Soc. 5, 75–82 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Baylis, G., Rafal, R. & Driver, J. J. Cognit. Neurosci. 5, 453–466 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Swiss National Science Foundation grant to PV (81-GE-50080) and a US PHS grant to RR (RO1 MH 41544).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis and Veterans Administration Medical Center, VANCHS, 150 Muir Road, Martinez, 94553, California, USA

    P. Vuilleumier & R. Rafal

Authors
  1. P. Vuilleumier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. Rafal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Vuilleumier.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Vuilleumier, P., Rafal, R. "Both" means more than "two": localizing and counting in patients with visuospatial neglect. Nat Neurosci 2, 783–784 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/12150

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/12150

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing