Prism Adaptation Improves Chronic Visual and Haptic Neglect: A Single Case Study

Abstract

Visuomotor adaptation to rightward displacing optical prisms is known to induce temporary improvements in the symptoms of left visual neglect. We report a 74 year-old woman with severe and chronic neglect of nine months duration, who underwent three weekly sessions of prism adaptation. Substantial improvements were obtained on tests of visual neglect (cancellation, copying and bisection). Improvement was also observed on a spatial judgement task, with no explicit visual component, in which CS was required to locate the centre of a haptically explored circle. These observations confirm that brief periods of prism exposure can benefit even chronic neglect disorders. Moreover, the improvement observed on the haptic task supports the belief that this procedure can influence higher levels of spatial representation.