Behavioural and functional changes in neglect after multisensory stimulation. Issue 5 (28th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Làdavas, Elisabetta; Tosatto, Luigino; Bertini, Caterina
• Is Part Of: Neuropsychological rehabilitation. Volume 32:Issue 5(2022)
• Page Start: 662
• Page End: 689
• Publication Date: 2022-05-28
• Subjects: Neglect -- hemianopia -- audio-visual stimulation -- rehabilitation -- superior colliculus; Brain damage -- Patients -- Rehabilitation -- Periodicals; Clinical neuropsychology -- Periodicals; 617.4810443
• DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2020.1786411
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0960-2011

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The present cohort study investigated whether systematic multisensory audio-visual stimulation might improve clinical signs of neglect. To this aim, patients with neglect ( n = 7) and patients with neglect associated with hemianopia ( n = 12) were exposed to a course of audio-visual stimulation with spatially and temporally coincident audio-visual pairs of stimuli for 10 daily training sessions (4 h of training per day), over two weeks. Performance on neuropsychological tests assessing neglect was measured before training, immediately after the training and months after the training at a follow-up session. The results showed significant post-training improvements in clinical signs of neglect, which were stable at the follow-up. These findings suggest that intensive and prolonged multisensory audio-visual stimulation affects orientation towards the neglected hemifield, therefore inducing long-term improvements in visual exploration and neglect symptoms in both patients with neglect and patients with neglect associated with hemianopia. Previous evidence from hemianopic patients suggests that these post-training effects might be mediated by activity in spared subcortical structures, such as the superior colliculus, which are relevant to multisensory integrative processing and spatial orientation.