Left Out by a Stroke: Right-brain injury may upset attention balance
By Bruce Bower
People who suddenly ignore everything to their left after suffering a right-brain stroke display disturbed activity in uninjured parts of a widespread neural network associated with attention, a new brain-scan study indicates.
The finding suggests that structures on both sides of the brain typically maintain a delicate balance in regulating visual attention, proposes a team led by neurologist Maurizio Corbetta of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. In some stroke patients, underactivity of damaged right-brain attention areas leads to hyperactivity in intact, left-brain attention structures, the scientists assert.