Overview

This project aims at unveiling the beneficial effects of prism adaptation as early rehabilitation technique to treat unilateral spatial neglect in the acute phase after a brain damage. This syndrome, frequent and very invalidating for daily life activities after a brain damage, is a cognitive disorder of lack of attention towards a part of the space. Patients at a first event brain injury hospitalized into the Neurology and Neurosurgery Departments and affected by spatial neglect will undergo to a protocol of five consecutive rehabilitation treatments, being assigned to the experimental (prisms) or control groups (neutral prisms). The effectiveness of the treatment will be assessed with cognitive, functional and motor-related measures, as well as a follow up 3 months later. These results can have a strong impact on the long-term functional outcome of these patients.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• First neurological event, affecting the right hemisphere or the left hemisphere (stroke, brain tumour post-surgery);
• Structural images of the brain lesion available (magnetic resonance or tomographic scans);
• Good Normal (or corrected) visual acuity;
• Presence of USN, as assessed by a standard neuropsychological evaluation.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Previous neurological disorder and/or current or previous psychiatric disease.
• Presence or suspicion of previous general cognitive deficits documented from the clinical dossier and/or suspicious of possible cognitive deficits ;
• Presence of difficulty in task's comprehension preventing its completion;
• Impossibility to sustain a research session of at least 30 minutes (e.g., attentional lability).