Size distortion in spatial neglect.

One of the suggested theories to explain some aspects of neglect in patients with right parietal lesions is the spatial distortion hypothesis. To determine whether a distorted representation of space can account for the performance of neglect patients in visuospatial tasks we asked 27 neglect patients to compare the width of two horizontally aligned bars. The bars were presented symmetric to the body midline or either on the left or right side of egocentric space. The size comparison data are in accordance with the hypothesis of a distorted egocentric representation based on a dynamic remapping of space. The results support the idea that the abnormalities observed in the size comparison tasks are due to a distorted internal representation of the outside world. There are some hints that this distortion could be based on a dynamic mapping of space determined by the distribution of visuospatial attention.