Vestibular hemispatial neglect: patterns and possible mechanism

Abstract

Recent reports have suggested that hemispatial neglect may be a vestibular disorder at the cortical level, based on the similarities of symptoms and neural correlates between the two phenomena. If this is the case, peripheral vestibulopathy may lead to hemispatial neglect. However, the etiology of hemispatial neglect in patients with unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy remains unclear. The aims of the present study were to investigate the following: (1) if unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy might cause hemispatial neglect, and if so, (2) whether hemispatial neglect in unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy might be induced by horizontal bias for eye position and body orientation or whether it is secondary to vestibular cortical dysfunction following unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy. Twenty-five consecutive patients with acute vestibular neuritis were recruited at the Dizziness Clinic of Pusan National University Hospital. All participants underwent neglect testing and measurements of horizontal bias for eye position and head and body orientation. Hemispatial neglect occurred in 32 % of patients with unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy. The frequency of contralesional neglect was equal to that of ipsilesional neglect. All patients with hemispatial neglect showed abnormal performance in bisection tasks. The incidence and severity of the horizontal bias of eye position and head and body orientation did not differ between patients with or without hemispatial neglect. Our study demonstrates that hemispatial neglect can develop after acute unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy. Hemispatial neglect after acute unilateral peripheral vestibulopathy may be attributed to damaged vestibular subnuclei, which receive afferents from both peripheral vestibular end organs and the vestibulocerebellum and project to the ipsilateral or contralateral thalamus and vestibular cortex.