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Exploring prism exposure after hemispheric damage: Reduced aftereffects following left-sided lesions.
Journal article

Exploring prism exposure after hemispheric damage: Reduced aftereffects following left-sided lesions.

  • Ronchi R Neuropsychological Laboratory, S. Luca Hospital, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy; Département de Neurosciences Fondamentales, Faculté de Médecine, University of Geneva, Campus Biotech H8, Geneva, Switzerland. Electronic address: roberta.ronchi@unige.ch.
  • Rossi I Neuropsychological Laboratory, S. Luca Hospital, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy; Department of Neurorehabilitation Sciences, S. Luca Hospital, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy.
  • Calzolari E Neuropsychological Laboratory, S. Luca Hospital, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy; Neuro-Otology Unit, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
  • Bolognini N Neuropsychological Laboratory, S. Luca Hospital, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy.
  • Vallar G Neuropsychological Laboratory, S. Luca Hospital, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milano, Italy; Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy. Electronic address: giuseppe.vallar@unimib.it.
  • 2018-12-01
Published in:
  • Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior. - 2019
Left- and right-brain-damaged patients
Prism adaptation
Proprioceptive and visuo-proprioceptive aftereffects
Adaptation, Psychological
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Cognition
Female
Functional Laterality
Humans
Language Tests
Male
Middle Aged
Neuronal Plasticity
Neuropsychological Tests
Perceptual Disorders
Photic Stimulation
Proprioception
Stroke Rehabilitation
Visual Fields
English Prism adaptation is a well-known method used to investigate brain plasticity, and a promising technique for the rehabilitation of unilateral spatial neglect (USN). Only little evidence about the mechanisms of prism adaptation (PA) in patients with left-brain damage is on record, and about putative differences of PA, and the aftereffects (AEs), between patients with left and right brain damage. In the present study, PA and the AEs were assessed in 30 brain-damaged patients, 20 with right-sided lesions (10 with and 10 without USN), and 10 with left-sided lesions without USN, as well as in a control group of 24 age-matched participants. All patients underwent adaptation to lenses shifting the field of vision towards the side of the lesion, followed by two measures for detecting AEs: the proprioceptive (P) and the visuo-proprioceptive (VP) straight-ahead tasks. To investigate the temporal course of AEs in the different groups, the two measures were recorded immediately and 10 min after PA. Before PA, and at the end of the 10-min delayed evaluation, two tasks to assess USN (target cancellation and drawing) were also administered. All patients adapted to prisms. However, left-brain-damaged (LBD) patients presented with reduced AEs, as compared with right-brain-damaged (RBD) patients with USN. Moreover, while both controls and LBD patients adapting to left-shifting prisms had reduced VP AEs in the delayed condition, AEs were not different from zero (i.e., no AEs) in LBD patients. Finally, in the delayed condition USN patients showed an improvement in the drawing, but not in the cancellation, tasks. These results suggest that adaptation to leftward shifting lenses is associated with larger decay of VP AEs, and a role of the left hemisphere in maintaining these AEs after PA. These findings can be of relevance for the clinical application of this technique in neurological populations.
Language
  • English
Open access status
closed
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/46557
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