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Published on: March 10, 2021
A world unglued: simultanagnosia as a spatial restriction of attention
Kirsten A Dalrymple1, Jason J S Barton, Alan Kingstone
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Dartmouth College Hanover, NH, USA ; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London London, UK.
Abstract:
Simultanagnosia is a disorder of visual attention that leaves a patient's world unglued: scenes and objects are perceived in a piecemeal manner. It is generally agreed that simultanagnosia is related to an impairment of attention, but it is unclear whether this impairment is object- or space-based in nature. We first consider the findings that support a concept of simultanagnosia as deficit of object-based attention. We then examine the evidence suggesting that simultanagnosia results from damage to a space-based attentional system, and in particular a model of simultanagnosia as a narrowed spatial window of attention. We ask whether seemingly object-based deficits can be explained by space-based mechanisms, and consider the evidence that object processing influences spatial deficits in this condition. Finally, we discuss limitations of a space-based attentional explanation.
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