Productive and defective impairments in the neglect syndrome: Graphic perseveration, drawing productions and optic prism exposure

The effects of adaptation to prisms displacing rightwards the field of vision on omission errors, and on perseveration and other graphic productions in a line cancellation task, were assessed in nine right-brain-damaged patients with left unilateral spatial neglect. Prism adaptation improved both neglect, as indexed by omission errors, and perseveration behaviour, up to a delay of 60 min. No correlation was found between omission and perseveration errors in all assessments. The suggestion is made that perseveration and other complex graphic productions made by right brain-damaged-patients with left spatial unilateral neglect is due to a defective monitoring of complex motor behaviour, frequently associated to cerebral damage involving the right frontal lobe. Interpretations of perseveration behaviour in terms of allochiria and directional hypokinesia are considered, and their limits discussed.