Abstract
Neglect is a neurological disorder of spatial attention with reduced awareness of visual stimuli in the hemifield contralateral to an acute temporo-parietal lesion mainly of the right hemisphere. There is a close association of multisensory orientation centers (MSO) and vestibular tonus imbalance. A lesion of the dominant right MSO causes a left-sided neglect due to a lack of ipsilateral activation of the visual cortex, which is further enhanced by increasing inhibition from the contralateral visual cortex. The nondominant MSO in the left hemisphere might be involved in the manifestation of the less frequent and more transient right-sided neglect and in the plastic mechanisms of gradual recovery from left-sided neglect or extinction. There is evidence that a vestibular tonus inbalance due to peripheral or central vestibular pathway lesions may also induce a neglect. In a first model approach using an attractor network and assuming that there is only one MSO in the right hemisphere, it is possible to simulate attentional shifts into a visual hemifield and to induce a neglect. The neural network model consists of four layers of neurons: retina, MSO, visual cortex V1, and superior colliculus. The superior colliculus layer is modeled as a recurrent attractor network with one inhibitory interneuron and synaptic weights chosen to implement a winner-take-all network that centers the hill of activity on the strongest input. We are well aware of the simplifications used in the conceptual drawings and the computational model, but nevertheless hope that they will serve as an inspiration for further modeling and clinical studies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baier B, Karnath H-O, Thömke F et al (2010) Is there a link between spatial neglect and vestibular function at the cerebellar level?. J Neurol 257: 1579–1581
Becker E, Karnath H-O (2007) Incidence of visual extinction after left versus right hemisphere stroke. Stroke 38: 3172–3174
Bense S, Bartenstein P, Lochmann M et al (2004) Metabolic changes in vestibular and visual cortices in acute vestibular neuritis. Ann Neurol 56: 624–630
Binder J, Marshall R, Lazar R et al (1992) Distinct syndromes of hemineglect. Arch Neurol 49: 1187–1194
Brandt T (1999) Vertigo, its multisensory syndromes, 2nd ed. Springer, London
Brandt T, Dieterich M (1994) Vestibular syndromes in the roll plane: topographic diagnosis from brainstem to cortex. Ann Neurol 36: 337–347
Brandt T, Dieterich M, Danek A (1994) Vestibular cortex lesions affect the perception of verticality. Ann Neurol 35: 528–534
Brandt T, Bucher SF, Seelos KC et al (1998) Bilateral functional MRI activation of the basal ganglia and middle temporal/medial superior temporal motion sensitive areas: Optokinetic stimulation in homonymous hemianopia. Arch Neurol 55: 1126–1131
Brandt T, Stephan T, Bense S et al (2000) Hemifield visual motion stimulation: an example of interhemispheric crosstalk. Neuroreport 11: 2803–2809
Brandt T, Glasauer S, Stephan T et al (2002) Visual-vestibular and visuovisual cortical interaction: new insights from fMRI and PET. Ann N Y Acad Sci 956: 230–241
Brandt T, Marx E, Stephan T et al (2003) Inhibitory interhemispheric visuovisual interaction in motion perception. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1004: 283–288
Brandt T, Glasauer S, Strupp M, Dieterich M (2009) Spatial neglect: hypothetical mechanisms of disturbed interhemispheric crosstalk for orientation. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1164: 216–221
Cappa S, Sterzi R, Vallar G et al (1987) Remission of hemineglect and anosognosia during vestibular stimulation. Neuropsychologia 25: 775–782
Cazzoli D, Schumacher R, Baas U et al (2012) Bilateral neglect after bihemispheric strokes. Cortex 48: 504–508
Choi K-D, Jo M-K, Kim M-J et al (2012) Vestibular hemispatial neglect: Patterns and possible mechanisms. (Submitted)
Corbetta M, Shulman GL (2011) Spatial neglect and attention networks. Annu Rev Neurosci 34: 569–599
De Witte L, Verhoeven J, Engelborghs S et al (2008) Crossed aphasia and visuo-spatial neglect following a right thalamic stroke: a case study and review of the literature. Behav Neurol 19: 177–194
Dieterich M, Brandt T (2008) Functional brain imaging of peripheral and central vestibular disorders. Brain 131: 2538–2552
Dieterich M, Bense S, Lutz S et al (2003) Dominance for vestibular cortical function in the non-dominant hemisphere. Cereb Cortex 13: 994–1007
Dieterich M, Bartenstein P, Spiegel S et al (2005a) Thalamic infarctions cause side-specific suppression of vestibular cortex activations. Brain 128: 2052–2067
Dieterich M, Bense S, Stephan T et al (2005b) Medial vestibular nucleus lesions in Wallenberg’s syndrome cause decreased activity of the contralateral vestibular cortex. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1039: 368–383
Dieterich M, Bense S, Spiegel S et al (2005c) Thalamic infarctions cause side-specific suppression of vestibular cortex activations. Brain 128: 2052–2067
Dieterich M, Bense S, Buchholz H-G et al (2012) On the differential effects of acute right vs. left-sided vestibular failure on brain metabolism. (Submitted)
Dronkers NF, Knight RT (1989) Right-sided neglect in a left-hander: evidence for reversed hemispheric specialization of attention capacity. Neuropsychology 27: 729–735
Goodridge JP, Touretzky DS (2000) Modeling attractor deformation in the rodent head-direction system. J Neurophysiol 83: 3402–3410
Halligan PW, Marshall J (1998) Visuospatial neglect: the ultimate deconstruction. Brain Cogn 37: 419–438
Heinke D, Deco G, Zihl J, Humphreys GW (2002) A computational neuroscience account of visual neglect. Neurocomputing 44(1–4): 811–816
Hildebrandt H, Spang K, Ebke M (2002) Visuospatial hemi-inattention following cerebellar/brain stem bleeding. Neurocase 8: 323–339
Hilgetag CC (2000) Spatial neglect and paradoxical lesion effects in the cat—a model based on midbrain connectivity. Neurocomputing 32–33: 793–799
Hilgetag C, Théoret H, Pascual-Leone A (2001) Enhanced visual spatial attention ipsilateral to rTMS-induced “virtual lesions” of human parietal cortex. Nat Neurosci 9: 953–957
Humphreys GW, Riddoch MJ (1994) Attention to within-object and between object spatial representations: multiple sites for visual selection. Cogn Neuropsychol 11: 207–241
Husain M, Kennard C (1996) Visual neglect associated with frontal lobe infarction. J Neurol 243: 652–657
Karnath H-O (1999) Subjective body orientation in neglect and the interactive contribution of neck muscle proprioception and vestibular stimulation. Brain 117: 1001–1012
Karnath H-O, Dieterich M (2006) Spatial neglect—a vestibular disorder?. Brain 129: 293–305
Karnath H-O, Rorden C (2012) The anatomy of spatial neglect. Neuropsychologia 50: 1010–1017
Karnath H-O, Fruhmann-Berger M, Küker W, Rordon C (2004) The anatomy of cortical neglect based on voxelwise statistical analysis: a study of 140 patients. Cereb Cortex 14: 1164–1172
Kerkhoff G, Schenk T (2012) Rehabilitation of neglect: an update. Neuropsychologia 50: 1072–1079
Kim EJ, Choi KD, Han MK et al (2008) Hemispatial neglect in cerebellar stroke. J Neurol Sci 275: 133–138
Lomber SG, Payne BR (1996) Removal of the two halves restores the whole: reversal of visual hemineglect during bilateral cortical or collicular inactivation in the cat. Vis Neurosci 13: 1143–1156
Lomber SG, Payne BR (2001) Task-specific reversal of visual hemineglect during reversible deactivation of posterior parietal cortex: a comparison with deactivation of the superior colliculus. Vis Neurosci 18: 487–499
Maeshima S, Terada T, Nakai K et al (1995) Unilateral spatial neglect due to a haemorrhagic contusion in the right frontal lobe. J Neurol 242: 613–617
McGlinchey-Berroth R, Bullis DP, Milberg WP et al (1996) Assessment of neglect reveals dissociable behavioural but not neuroanatomical subtypes. J Intern Neuropsychol 2: 441–451
Monaghan P, Shillcock R (2004) Hemispheric asymmetries in cognitive modeling: connectionist modeling of unilateral visual neglect. Psychol Rev 111: 283–308
Oliveri M (2011) Brain stimulation procedures for treatment of contralesional spatial neglect. Restor Neurol Neurosci 29: 421–425
Payne BR, Rushmore R-J (2004) Functional circuitry underlying natural and interventional cancellation of visual neglect. Exp Brain Res 154: 127–153
Pisella L, Mattingley JB (2004) The contribution of spatial remapping impairments to unilateral visual neglect. Neurosci Behav Rev 28: 181–200
Ptak R, Schnider A (2011) The attention network of the human brain: relating structural damage associated with spatial neglect to functional imaging correlates of spatial attention. Neuropsychologia 49: 3063–3070
Ptak R, Schnider A, Müri R (2010) Bilateral impairment of concurrent saccade programming in hemispatial neglect. Neuropsychologia 48: 880–886
Rushmore RJ, Valero-Cabre A, Lomber SG et al (2006) Functional circuitry underlying visual neglect. Brain 129: 1803–1821
Silveri MC, Misciagna S, Terrezza G (2001) Right side neglect in right cerebellar lesion. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 71: 114–117
Vallar G, Perani D (1986) The anatomy of unilateral neglect after right hemisphere stroke lesions: a clinical CT correlation study in man. Neuropsychologia 24: 609–622
Vallar G, Bottini G, Rusconi ML et al (1993) Exploring somatosensory hemineglect by vestibular stimulation. Brain 116: 71–86
Vanderploeg RD (1986) Left-handedness and variant patterns of cerebral organization: a case study. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 1: 357–369
Wilson HR, Cowan JD (1972) Excitatory and inhibitory interactions in localized populations of model neurons. Biophys J 12: 1–24
Zu Eulenburg P, Caspers S, Roski C et al (2012) Meta-analytical definition and functional connectivity of the human vestibular cortex. Neuroimage 60: 162–169
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brandt, T., Dieterich, M., Strupp, M. et al. Model approach to neurological variants of visuo-spatial neglect. Biol Cybern 106, 681–690 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-012-0517-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00422-012-0517-3