Brief remission periods in visuospatial neglect: evidence from long-term follow-up

Ten patients with left-sided visuospatial neglect due to cerebrovascular accident were monitored using the Behavioural Inattention Test (BIT) at weekly intervals, on a long-term basis. The novel finding was that some patients showed occasional but transitory marked improvement in their visuospatial neglect at times producing a normal score. This spontaneous phenomenon was evidenced by the patient cancelling sections or the entire block of left-sided targets, without any additional cues or prompts. Such episodes indicate that, in this small group of patients, visuospatial neglect is not necessarily irrevocable, at least for simple stimuli.