ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Unilateral spatial neglect (USN) results in a consistent and exaggerated spatial asymmetry in the processing of information about the body or space due to an acquired brain injury. There are several USN tests for clinical diagnosis, but none of them are validated in Brazil. The aim was to obtain normative values from a healthy sample in Brazil and to evaluate the effects of demographic variables on USN tests. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study performed with 150 neurologically healthy individuals. USN was evaluated using the line cancelation (LC), star cancelation (SC), and line bisection (LB) tests in the A3 (29.7 x 42.0 cm) sheet format. RESULTS: In LC, 143 participants had 0 omissions, and the occurrence of failure was significantly associated with aging (OR=1.1[1.02-1.2]; p=0.012). In SC, 145 participants had fewer than 1 omission, and the occurrence of failure was significantly associated with aging (OR=1.07[1.03-1.11]; p<0.001). In LB, deviations were the lowest for those with the highest level of education (r=0.20; p=0.015), and the deviation was 9.5 mm. CONCLUSION: The cutoff points presented in this study may be indicative of USN, but due to performance differences based on age, we suggest using different norm scores for different age groups. These norm scores can be used in the clinic immediately for USN diagnosis.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Adolescent , Adult , Middle Aged , Aged , Young Adult , Perceptual Disorders , Brazil , Cross-Sectional Studies , Functional Laterality , Neuropsychological TestsABSTRACT
A atenção voluntária é assimétrica em sujeitos saudáveis, com favorecimento para o lado direito do espaço. Há evidências de que os idosos apresentam declínio da atenção, o que poderia gerar mudança da assimetria atencional. Objetivamos investigar a assimetria normal da atenção em idosos saudáveis. Vinte idosos (60 a 85 anos) e 20 participantes jovens foram investigados no teste de bissecção de linhas (TBL) e no teste de Landmark (TL). Os resultados apontam ausência de diferenças significativas entre os Grupos e entre Gêneros em ambos os testes para o número de erros e para os desvios em relação ao centro no TBL. Conclui-se que participantes idosos mantêm capacidade de atenção preservada e assimetria normal do fenômeno da orientação da atenção, pelo menos para estes testes
Voluntary attention appears to be asymmetric in healthy subjects, favoring the right side of space. There is evidence that elderly people present a decline in attention, which could lead to change of attentional asymmetry. We aimed to investigate whether the normal asymmetry of attention is altered in healthy older people. Twenty elderly (60 to 85 years old) and 20 young participants were investigated in the line bisection task (LBT) and in the Landmark task (LT). Results indicate absence of significant differences between the Groups and between Genders in both tests for the number of errors and deviations from the center in the LBT. It is concluded that elderly participants maintain preserved attention capacity and normal asymmetry of orienting attention's phenomenon, at least for these tasks