Unilateral Spatial Eminegligence: Half Of The Body Ceases To Exist

Have you heard of the one-sided spatial eminegligence? It is a disorder that occurs frequently in people who have suffered brain damage. If we try to go to the root of the word, we could guess its meaning. Nonetheless, there are many different types of hemi-neglect.

The “hemi-” morpheme indicates half of something. In this case, we refer to our field of view. “-Negligence” tells us about neglect or lack of attention towards something. A negligence that leads us to make mistakes that represent a risk for themselves or for the surrounding environment.

If we approach this concept to the world of brain damage, we will understand that heminegligence implies a lack of attention on the part of half of one’s body. More concretely, it represents absolute inattention to all stimuli (auditory, tactile, visual…) that that area of ​​the body receives.

Enimegligence and its power to make what is on our left disappear

It is as if people with this disorder do not see what is going on in that half of their body. It is curious to note this, yet it is the feeling one gets when talking or observing a person suffering from hemi-neglect.

In fact, these people perfectly perceive the stimuli they receive in that visual field. The problem is attention. They don’t listen to that part of their body, it’s like it stops existing. But the moment they are urged to focus their attention on that side, they perceive it perfectly. They are aware of any kind of stimulus.

As we all know, two different hemispheres can be differentiated in the brain. When brain damage occurs in one of the two hemispheres, it mainly affects the part of the body next to the damaged hemisphere. In other words, the contralesional part of the body is affected.

When the right hemisphere of the brain is damaged, the left side suffers

If the damage occurred in the right hemisphere, therefore, the most affected area will probably be the one on the left. If the damage is suffered in the left hemisphere, however, the right side of the body will suffer. Among the many forms in which this involvement of the body can show itself, there are hemiparesis (partial paralysis) or hemiplegia (total paralysis).

Heminegligence usually occurs following injuries to the right hemisphere.  The left side, therefore, is the one most commonly involved. A side to which those concerned stop paying attention because it is as if it has ceased to exist. They do not orient themselves towards their left side and are unable to react to what is happening in the area in question.

The attention of patients with hematogligence is focused only on the side controlled by their healthy brain hemisphere. In most cases, therefore, the right one. For example, it is  common to notice that they do not hear us when we speak to them from the left side , a situation that completely changes when we say the same thing to them, but from the right side.

Compensation strategies are the most effective for treating hematoglig

“Oh I didn’t see you! Excuse me!” wont be the most usual reaction when this happens. Neuropsychology, therefore, works on completely “ruined” attention. Like? Helping to redirect it to the contralateral hemispace of the lesion.

We must also increase the patient’s awareness of this deficit  since, in many cases, hematoglig is associated with anosognosia, the phenomenon that leads the patient not to be aware of their difficulties.

It is therefore necessary to help him to become aware of his own difficulty and to become his guide when he does not find what he is looking for. Probably what he does not find lies on his left side, the side that “has ceased to exist”.