Pathological structure of visuospatial neglect: A comprehensive multivariate analysis of spatial and non-spatial aspects

Yusaku Takamura; Shintaro Fujii; Satoko Ohmatsu; Shu Morioka; Noritaka Kawashima

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102316

Pathological structure of visuospatial neglect: A comprehensive multivariate analysis of spatial and non-spatial aspects

iScience. 2021 Mar 16;24(4):102316. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102316. eCollection 2021 Apr 23.

Authors

Yusaku Takamura^{1

2}, Shintaro Fujii^{2

3}, Satoko Ohmatsu¹, Shu Morioka^{2

4}, Noritaka Kawashima¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Rehabilitation for the Movement Functions, Research Institute of National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities, 4-1 Namiki, Tokorozawa, Saitama, Japan.
² Graduate School of Health Science, Kio University, Nara, Japan.
³ Nishiyamato Rehabilitation Hospital, Nara, Japan.
⁴ Neurorehabilitation Research Center, Kio University, Nara, Japan.

Abstract

Visuospatial neglect (VSN) is a neurological syndrome of higher brain functions in which an individual fails to detect stimuli on a space that is contralateral to a hemispheric lesion. We performed a comprehensive multivariate analysis based on the principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis in patients with right hemisphere stroke and then performed a determination of different elements of VSN. PCA-based cluster analysis detected distinct aspects of VSN as follows: cluster 1: low arousal and attention state, cluster 2: exogenous neglect, cluster 3: spatial working memory (SWM) deficit. Lesion analysis revealed neural correlates for each cluster and highlighted "disturbance of the ventral attention network" for the stagnation of exogenous attention and "parietal damage" for SWM deficit. Our results reveal a pathological structure of VSN as multiple components of an attention network deficit, and they contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying VSN.

Keywords: Behavioral Neuroscience; Computer Modeling; Medical Imaging; Systems Neuroscience.