Brief deprivation of vision after unilateral lesions of the frontal eye field prevents contralateral inattention.

Brief deprivation of vision after unilateral lesions of the frontal eye field prevents the appearance of contralateral inattention to visual, auditory, and somatosensory stimuli. The forced circling that accompanies inattention, however, is not affected. An equivalent preoperative period in the dark only partly reduces inattention symptoms. Visual deprivation does not reduce or prevent inattention resulting from lesions of the superior colliculus.