Environmental orientation and navigation in different types of unilateral neglect

In this paper, we review several studies that analyze the relationship between lateralized deficits of visuo-spatial processing and deficits in the navigational and topographical domain. In particular, we show that in visuo-spatial or perceptual neglect basic navigational skills are spared. In fact, patients affected by perceptual neglect are able to represent travelled distances and build cognitive maps of real environments despite their difficulty in taking into account left-sided elements. By contrast, although they have no explorative deficits, patients affected by representational neglect show selective impairments in developing, storing and using cognitive maps.