Re-fixation and perseveration patterns in neglect patients during free visual exploration

Paladini, Rebecca Elise; Wyss, Patric; Kaufmann, Brigitte C.; Urwyler, Prabitha; Nef, Tobias; Cazzoli, Dario; Nyffeler, Thomas; Müri, René M. (2019). Re-fixation and perseveration patterns in neglect patients during free visual exploration. European journal of neuroscience, 49(10), pp. 1244-1253. Blackwell Science 10.1111/ejn.14309

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The literature suggests that neglect patients not only show impairments in directing attention toward the left, contralesional space, but also present with perseverative behavior. Moreover, previous studies described re-fixations during visual search tasks, and interpreted this finding as an impairment of spatial working memory. The aim of the present study was to study re-fixations and perseverations (i.e., recurrent re-fixations to same locations) during free visual exploration, a task with high eco-logical validity. We hypothesized that: (1) neglect patient would perform re-fixations more frequently than healthy controls within the right hemispace; and, (2) the re-fixation behavior of neglect patients would be characterized by perseverative fixations. To test these hypotheses, we assessed 22 neglect patients and 23 healthy controls, measuring their eye movements during free exploration of naturalistic pictures. The results showed that neglect patients tend to re-fixate locations within the ipsilesional hemispace when they freely explore naturalistic pictures. Importantly, the saliency of discrete locations within the pictures has a stronger influence on fixation behavior within the contralesional than within the ipsilesional hemispace in neglect patients. Finally, the results indicated that, for re fixations, saliency plays a more important role within the contralesional than the ipsilesional hemispace. Moreover, we found evidence that re-fixation behavior of neglect patients is characterized by frequent recurrent re-fixations back to the same spatial locations which may be interpreted as perseverations. Hence, with the present study, we could better elucidate the mechanism leading to re-fixations and perseverative behavior during free visual exploration in neglect patients.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Department of Head Organs and Neurology (DKNS) > Clinic of Neurology
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Geriatric Psychiatry and Psychotherapy
10 Strategic Research Centers > ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research
10 Strategic Research Centers > ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research > ARTORG Center - Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation
04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services

Graduate School:

Graduate School for Health Sciences (GHS)

UniBE Contributor:

Paladini, Rebecca Elise, Wyss, Patric, Urwyler-Harischandra, Prabitha, Nef, Tobias, Cazzoli, Dario, Müri, René Martin

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology

ISSN:

0953-816X

Publisher:

Blackwell Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Angela Amira Botros

Date Deposited:

29 Jan 2019 10:18

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:24

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/ejn.14309

PubMed ID:

30561071

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.123303

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/123303

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