Which term describes a condition involving impaired spatial attention following brain injury?

Which term describes a condition involving impaired spatial attention following brain injury?

• A. Neglect
• B. Hyperopia
• C. Myopia
• D. Strabismus

Answer: (A)

Neglect is a condition in which spatial attention is impaired after brain injury. It most often results from damage to the right hemisphere, leading to a failure to attend to the left side of space or to objects on that side, even though the eyes and visual pathways may be intact. This cognitive-perceptual issue affects awareness of stimuli in personal, peripersonal, or extrapersonal space and is typically assessed with tasks like line cancellation or clock drawing to reveal the bias. This distinction matters because the other terms refer to eye or optical problems rather than attentional or perceptual deficits. Hyperopia is farsightedness, where distant objects are seen more clearly than near ones due to refractive error. Myopia is nearsightedness, where close objects are clear but distant ones are blurry. Strabismus is a misalignment of the eyes, which can cause double vision or suppression but does not inherently indicate reduced awareness of one side of space.

Neglect is a condition in which spatial attention is impaired after brain injury. It most often results from damage to the right hemisphere, leading to a failure to attend to the left side of space or to objects on that side, even though the eyes and visual pathways may be intact. This cognitive-perceptual issue affects awareness of stimuli in personal, peripersonal, or extrapersonal space and is typically assessed with tasks like line cancellation or clock drawing to reveal the bias.

This distinction matters because the other terms refer to eye or optical problems rather than attentional or perceptual deficits. Hyperopia is farsightedness, where distant objects are seen more clearly than near ones due to refractive error. Myopia is nearsightedness, where close objects are clear but distant ones are blurry. Strabismus is a misalignment of the eyes, which can cause double vision or suppression but does not inherently indicate reduced awareness of one side of space.