Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026
Virtual Reality Tools for Assessing Unilateral Spatial Neglect: A Novel Opportunity for Data Collection
Published on: March 10, 2021
Around the clock surveillance: simple graphic disturbance in patients with hemispatial neglect carries implications
A D Smith1, I D Gilchrist, S H Butler
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, 8 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TN, UK. alastair.smith@bristol.ac.uk
Background:
Drawing, and the clock drawing task in particular, is widely used as a diagnostic tool in the study of hemispatial neglect. It is generally assumed that the errors in graphic production, such as the misplacement of numbers, reflect a visuospatial deficit, and that drawing production itself (for example, producing the circle) is unimpaired.
Objectives:
To test this assumption by examining whether the production of simple circles is affected by neglect.
Methods:
16 right hemisphere stroke patients copied circles of various sizes and their drawings were measured for size accuracy.
Results:
Patients with more severe neglect produced greater scaling errors, consistently drawing the circle smaller than the original. Errors were not in the horizontal axis alone--shrinkage occurred equally in both height and width axes.
Conclusions:
Neglect can co-occur with constructional difficulties that serve to exacerbate the symptoms presented. This should be taken into account in the assessment of even apparently simple drawing tasks.
