No abrupt change in visual hemineglect from near to far space

In thirteen patients with prominent visuospatial hemineglect following acute right hemisphere cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and in two normal controls we investigated bisection of horizontal lines at various viewing distances. Their task was to indicate the centre of each horizontal line using a hand-held laser pointer. In five of the thirteen patients the angular error was greater for lines further away than for lines of identical angular size within reaching distance, confirming previous results [Cowey, A., Small, M., Ellis, S., Visuospatial neglect can be worse in far than in near space. Neuropsychologia, 1994, 32, 1059-1066]. There was no evidence that a sudden increase in the angular displacement occurred when the maximum reaching distance was exceeded.