Assessment of unilateral neglect: a new reading test

A new reading test, designed to detect left-sided visual neglect, was administered to 66 patients with unilateral lesions. As expected, the group with right-hemisphere involvement had a considerably higher incidence of impaired performance; only subjects in this group exhibited severe neglect. In general, subjects who showed neglect on the reading test also did so on visual-perceptual tasks. However, in some instances neglect surfaced only on the former. This instrument appears to be a valuable screening measure, and it also has potential as a retraining tool.