Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1999 Nov;67(5):572–578. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.67.5.572

Parietal and occipital lobe contributions to perception of straight ahead orientation

S Ferber 1, H Karnath 1
PMCID: PMC1736616  PMID: 10519859

Abstract

OBJECTIVES—Several studies have investigated how peripheral stimulation affects the perception of body orientation in healthy subjects. The studies showed that opposing stimulation of two different input modalities can cancel out, leaving perception of body orientation unchanged. It was ascertained whether a comparable phenomenon could be found in brain damaged patients with two distinct disorders which individually lead to opposing shifts of the perceived midline.
METHODS—The visual subjective straight ahead was measured in patients with pure neglect, pure hemianopia, or a combination of neglect and hemianopia.
RESULTS—As in previous studies, patients with pure neglect displayed an ipsilesional displacement of the perceived straight ahead. Patients with pure hemianopia showed a contralesional shift. By contrast, no significant midline shift occurred in the patients with both neglect and hemianopia.
CONCLUSIONS—Neglect and hemianopia interact so that opposing biases in the perception of body orientation neutralise each other. Both parietal and occipital areas seem to contribute to the perception of straight ahead body orientation and seem to have counteracting effects when lesioned in the same hemisphere.



Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (203.5 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Barton J. J., Black S. E. Line bisection in hemianopia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1998 May;64(5):660–662. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.64.5.660. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Biguer B., Donaldson I. M., Hein A., Jeannerod M. Neck muscle vibration modifies the representation of visual motion and direction in man. Brain. 1988 Dec;111(Pt 6):1405–1424. doi: 10.1093/brain/111.6.1405. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bisiach E., Rusconi M. L. Break-down of perceptual awareness in unilateral neglect. Cortex. 1990 Dec;26(4):643–649. doi: 10.1016/s0010-9452(13)80313-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chokron S., Bartolomeo P. Patterns of dissociation between left hemineglect and deviation of the egocentric reference. Neuropsychologia. 1997 Nov;35(11):1503–1508. doi: 10.1016/s0028-3932(97)00079-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Chokron S., Imbert M. Variations of the egocentric reference among normal subjects and a patient with unilateral neglect. Neuropsychologia. 1995 Jun;33(6):703–711. doi: 10.1016/0028-3932(95)00007-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Farnè A., Ponti F., Làdavas E. In search of biased egocentric reference frames in neglect. Neuropsychologia. 1998 Jul;36(7):611–623. doi: 10.1016/s0028-3932(97)00164-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Grüsser O. J., Pause M., Schreiter U. Localization and responses of neurones in the parieto-insular vestibular cortex of awake monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). J Physiol. 1990 Nov;430:537–557. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1990.sp018306. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Grüsser O. J., Pause M., Schreiter U. Vestibular neurones in the parieto-insular cortex of monkeys (Macaca fascicularis): visual and neck receptor responses. J Physiol. 1990 Nov;430:559–583. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.1990.sp018307. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Heilman K. M., Bowers D., Watson R. T. Performance on hemispatial pointing task by patients with neglect syndrome. Neurology. 1983 May;33(5):661–664. doi: 10.1212/wnl.33.5.661. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jeannerod M., Biguer B. Référence égocentrique et espace représenté. Rev Neurol (Paris) 1989;145(8-9):635–639. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Karnath H. O., Niemeier M., Dichgans J. Space exploration in neglect. Brain. 1998 Dec;121(Pt 12):2357–2367. doi: 10.1093/brain/121.12.2357. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Karnath H. O., Perenin M. T. Tactile exploration of peripersonal space in patients with neglect. Neuroreport. 1998 Jul 13;9(10):2273–2277. doi: 10.1097/00001756-199807130-00024. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Karnath H. O., Sievering D., Fetter M. The interactive contribution of neck muscle proprioception and vestibular stimulation to subjective "straight ahead" orientation in man. Exp Brain Res. 1994;101(1):140–146. doi: 10.1007/BF00243223. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Karnath H. O. Spatial orientation and the representation of space with parietal lobe lesions. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1997 Oct 29;352(1360):1411–1419. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1997.0127. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Karnath H. O. Subjective body orientation in neglect and the interactive contribution of neck muscle proprioception and vestibular stimulation. Brain. 1994 Oct;117(Pt 5):1001–1012. doi: 10.1093/brain/117.5.1001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Mark V. W., Heilman K. M. Bodily neglect and orientational biases in unilateral neglect syndrome and normal subjects. Neurology. 1990 Apr;40(4):640–643. doi: 10.1212/wnl.40.4.640. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Rossetti Y., Rode G., Pisella L., Farné A., Li L., Boisson D., Perenin M. T. Prism adaptation to a rightward optical deviation rehabilitates left hemispatial neglect. Nature. 1998 Sep 10;395(6698):166–169. doi: 10.1038/25988. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Vallar G., Guariglia C., Nico D., Bisiach E. Spatial hemineglect in back space. Brain. 1995 Apr;118(Pt 2):467–472. doi: 10.1093/brain/118.2.467. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. WERNER H., WAPNER S., CHANDLER K. A. Experiments on sensory-tonic field theory of perception. II. Effect of supported and unsupported tilt of the body on the visual perception of verticality. J Exp Psychol. 1951 Nov;42(5):346–350. doi: 10.1037/h0062186. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES