Monday, October 1, 2012

Unilateral Neglect

People with damage to either hemisphere tend to ignore the opposite side. For example someone with damage to the left hemisphere neglect the right side of the body or the right side of objects. They even ignore what they hear in the right ear and feel in the right hand. The definition of unilateral neglect is a symptom of brain damage in which a person is unaware of one side of his body and of anything in the external world on the same side. Its kind of hard to ignore one side of our body or anything we see on either side but for people with damage to a hemisphere its quite easy. There are procedures to increase the attention of the neglected side but only last temporarily. Here are several examples of someone with unilateral neglect.





Where is the whole other side of the drawing? We of course would be able to see and draw the whole thing cause we have a whole brain but this is what people with damage to a hemisphere would see. I still cant believe that to people with hemisphere damage they are only able to see one side of everything. I think it would be interesting to meet someone with hemisphere damage one day and just hang out with them and get to know a little bit more about this subject.


2 comments:

  1. Yes, it would be very interesting to communicate with someone with hemisphere damage. I think it would be extremely difficult though. I'm not sure if someone would be able to communicate with someone who has damage to the left hemisphere. I also believe that people with damage to the right side of the brain might be bland and uninteresting. The behavior would be interesting to observe.

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  2. I think it would be very interesting to talk to someone that totally neglects one complete side of their body and environment. I really would like to ask them how they function through the everyday, because I for one know that I'd be so frustrated by life if I neglected one side of life.

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