Decrease of contralateral neglect by neck muscle vibration and spatial orientation of trunk midline

Abstract

Three patients with a right hemisphere lesion and marked left-sided neglect without visual field defects were asked to detect and identify stimuli which were tachistoscopically presented in the left or right visual half-field. Neglect of stimuli presented in the contralesional left visual field, which was observed when the patient's body was in a normal upright position with trunk, head and gaze oriented straight ahead to the middle of the projection screen, could be reduced by vibrating the left posterior neck muscles as well as by turning the trunk 15 degrees to the left. In contrast, unspecific stimulation on the left side of the patient's body, produced by vibrating the left hand muscles or the proprioceptive signal induced by turning the head 15 degrees to the left, had no compensatory effects. The results showed that the afferent information about real lengthening of the left posterior neck muscles (produced by turning the trunk) as apparent lengthening of these muscles (produced by their vibration), leads to a remission of contralateral neglect. Thus, the proprioceptive input from the neck muscles, i.e. the head-on-trunk signal, appears to influence the extension of the neglected part of space in patients with neglect. The signal seems to contribute substantially to the neural generation of the egocentric frame of reference that allows the determination of body position with respect to visual space. We hypothesize that the reduction of neglect by vibration of the contralateral posterior neck muscles is based on a shift of the subjective spatial localization of the sagittal midplane in the contralesional direction and a corresponding alteration of the egocentric coordinate system necessary for visuomotor coordination and exploration of space.