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PRISM ADAPTATION

IN THE
REHABILITATION OF PATIENTS
WITH
UNILATERAL SPATIAL INATTENTION
Maura E. Massucci, OD sonal space as proposed by Stein,4 and

U
INTRODUCTION
Gibsonia, PA elaborated by Suchoff and Ciuffreda.2
nilateral spatial inattention (USI),
Abstract Table 1 summarizes the behavioral conse-
also known as neglect, can occur
Unilateral spatial inattention (USI), also quences of USI in each of these spaces.
subsequent to acquired brain injury, in-
known as neglect, can occur subsequent In the majority of patients, the signs and
cluding traumatic brain injury or cerebral
to acquired brain injury, including trau- symptoms of neglect disappear spontane-
vascular accident (CVA).1,2 USI can oc-
matic brain injury or stroke. USI can be ously within six weeks to three months
cur with or without a visual field defect,
present with or without a visual field de- after the CVA. Patients with USI can
as determined by standard clinical meth-
fect, as determined by standard clinical show varying degrees of spontaneous im-
ods, and most often results from injury to
methods. Patients with USI can show provement in the days, weeks, or months
the right posterior parietal cortex.2 Since
varying degrees of spontaneous recovery after insult to the posterior parietal cortex
the posterior parietal cortex is responsible
within the first three months post-brain occurs. However, for many patients, USI
for the cognitive representation of space,
injury, but for many patients, USI symp- symptoms remain severe.2,5 Persistence
insult to this cortical area can result in a
toms remain severe. Yoked prism has long of USI symptoms beyond three months
defect on the patients contralateral side.
been used in optometric management of has been linked with poor functional and
While USI can occur after damage to ei-
visual field defects, including USI. In this motor prognosis. Over 25% of patients
ther the left or right hemisphere, it is much
regard recent research shows that prism do not experience complete spontaneous
more common after right brain damage.
adaptation (PA) to a rightward displace- recovery beyond this point.6 Their symp-
This is probably because in most people,
ment of the visual field improves USI toms of neglect can persist for several
the right hemisphere is dominant for con-
symptoms. Not only does PA ameliorate years, and their quality of life is greatly
trol of spatial attention.3 Most of the lit-
neglect on a sensorimotor level, it also diminished.5,7
erature regarding USI limits discussion
influences higher spatial representation For those who do not experience complete
to USI consequent to right hemispheric
and cognition. Its effects continue for up spontaneous resolution of USI symptoms,
damage from a CVA. For that reason, the
to six months with two weeks of twenty rehabilitation is prescribed. USI is par-
following discussion focuses on USI that
minute per day PA training. Though PAs ticularly difficult to rehabilitate due to
occurs on the patients left side after dam-
mechanism is not fully understood, the the fact that the patient is unaware of the
age to the right hemisphere of the brain.
posterior parietal cortex and cerebellum problem.8 Rehabilitation specialists have
USI can manifest itself in a patients per-
are implicated in the process. PA has employed both bottom-up and top-down
sonal space, peri-personal and extra-per-
huge implications for USI rehabilitation; strategies to increase patients ability to
its non-invasive nature makes it an effec- Table 1: Spatial areas where USI may occur and behaviors associated with each area.2,4
tive rehabilitation tool to ameliorate both Area of Descrip- Impairment of Associated Behaviors
visuo-motor responses and higher levels Space tion
of spatial representation and cognition in Personal Poor Body awareness Anosognosia or asomatognosia
USI patients. awareness Extinction, hemianaesthesia, hemipa-
of body resis, hemiplegia
schema Body schema unawareness
Key Words Instability
acquired brain injury, cerebral vascular Akinesia, hypokinesia, hypometria,
impersistence
accident, hemi-inattention, neglect, pos-
Peri- External Difficulty making purposeful Misses food on one side of plate
terior parietal cortex, prism, prism after- personal world within motor actions such as: Fails to comb hair, apply make-up,
effect, stroke, traumatic brain injury, uni- arms reach o Reaching for objects shave one side of face
lateral spatial inattention, yoked prism o Manipulating objects Unable to copy or spontaneously draw
one side of a picture
Unaware of objects placed on one side
of table
When dressing, fails to put limbs into
shirt and pants on one side
Extra- External Visual and Auditory space Unresponsive to sounds, objects,
Massucci ME.. Prism adaptation in the rehabilita- personal world Visual motor control people on affected side
tion of patients with unilateral spatial inattention. J further than Visual localization Collides with objects and people which
Behav Optom 2009;20:101-105. arms reach Visual representation of world pop up suddenly out of nowhere

Journal of Behavioral Optometry Volume 20/2009/Number 4/Page 101


function. Procedures based on bottom- determine why PA works, and how long shift in subjective straight ahead pointing,
up mechanisms like sensory-based (ves- its effects may last. The purpose of this thus bringing their shifted idea of straight
tibular, optokinetic, transcutaneous, and paper is to review the current literature in ahead back toward center. This first part
proprioceptive) stimulation have shown an attempt to answer the following ques- of Rossetti et als12 experiment gave evi-
enhanced representation of contra-lesion- tions: dence that patients with neglect can adapt
al space in USI patients. However, their What is PA and how is it done? to a prismatic rightward shift of their visual
effects are relatively short-lived.6 Top- Which symptoms of neglect are im- field, and that PA promotes a close-to-nor-
down strategies, where patients have been proved by PA? mal post-test on a manual pointing task.
trained to direct their attention voluntarily How long do the effects of PA last? Rossetti et al12 next set out to determine
toward the neglected side, have had lon- By what mechanism(s) does PA if this adaptation could improve perfor-
ger-lasting effects. However, these im- work and what neural structures are mance on a series of neuropsychological
provements were specific to the particular involved? tests of neglect including: line bisection,
tasks trained.6 In essence, many patients What are the implications for PA in line cancellation, copying a simple five-
trained with top-down strategies have de- terms of USI rehabilitation? item drawing, drawing a daisy from mem-
veloped efficient splinter skills that they The research reviewed here was conduct- ory, and reading simple text. The neglect
have difficulty translating to real-life daily ed by neuro-psychologists, and the termi- patients were randomly assigned to either
activities. It is becoming more apparent nology will reflect their non-optometric the experimental group (who wore base-
that both top-down and bottom-up strate- background. Nevertheless, it becomes left yoked prism goggles) or the control
gies may need to be used in conjunction evident that these studies have profound group (wearing neutral goggles with flat,
with each other to produce the most ef- clinical implications for optometric man- thick lenses). Both groups were given the
fective and longest-lasting rehabilitation agement of patients with USI. battery of neuropsychological tests before
regimen. prism adaptation (pre-test), immediately
DISCUSSION
As part of the multi-discipline rehabili- after removing the goggles (post-test),
What is Prism Adaptation?
tation team, optometrists have long used and two hours after removing the goggles
When optometrists use the term prism
full field yoked prism in their manage- (late test). Results of this study showed
adaptation, it may call to mind some-
ment of visual field defects with and a statistically-significant performance im-
thing known as the prism adaptation test
without USI. This technique optically provement between the pre-test and both
used when performing a strabismus evalu-
shifts visual space from the non-seeing the post-test and late-test of the experi-
ation.13 Another meaning refers to the ef-
area into the intact field.2,9-11 It also re- mental group. The control group did not
fectiveness of compensatory prism with
duces the need for the patient to scan into show a significant difference in perfor-
heterophoric patients.14 In the research
the unseen area of inattention. Recent mance. Thus, the dramatic improvement
studies discussed in this paper, PA refers
studies have shown that there may be in performance on the neuropsychologi-
to something quite different: exposing pa-
more to the effect of yoked prism than just cal battery was evident immediately after
tients to yoked prism while they perform a
the optical shift they create. This is partic- prism exposure, and was maintained fully
series of pointing movements toward a vi-
ularly evident in patients who experienced two hours later.
sual target.5-7,12,15 Even after the adaptation
improvement in their USI symptoms af- This study also provides evidence that PA
is completed and yoked prism is removed,
ter adaptation to base left yoked prism. may in fact act upon higher levels of cog-
patients retain improvements in the signs
Adaptation to a rightward displacement nitive spatial representation. This concept
of USI for a period of time.
of the visual field (using base left yoked of improving clinical neglect symptoms
The shift of patients subjective concept
prism) has been shown to contribute to a with PA began a flurry of research into
of straight ahead to the right is a classic
reduction of USI symptoms. This effect the specifics of PA, and Rossettis results
manifestation of left hemispatial neglect.12
remains even after the yoked prism is re- They tend to re-assign their subjective have been repeated by additional research-
moved from the patient. idea of straight ahead toward their right, ers.5,6,8,15-21 Based on the effectiveness of
In 1998, Rossetti et al showed that prism away from their neglected field, so as to PA on neglect symptoms, subsequent re-
adaptation (PA) ameliorated the shift of split their intact field down the middle. search focused on more clearly defining
the subjective midline, the patients per- The first part of Rossetti et als12 study in- which symptoms of neglect were im-
ception of the straight ahead direction, vestigated how neglect patients adapted to proved after PA, how PA improves these
to the right. (This type of PA is different a 10 lateral shift of their visual field with symptoms, and how long the effects last.
than other phenomena of the same name yoked prism, as measured by a manual Which Symptoms of Neglect
that are discussed in the next section.) pointing task. Eight patients with neglect Are Improved by PA?
All patients in this study improved both and five control patients were blindfolded Rosetti et als results led researchers to
in their manual body-midline demonstra- and asked to point straight ahead both be- consider that PA may stimulate neuro-
tion and their performance on classical fore and after a brief period of PA. Before plasticity related to multisensory integra-
neuropsychological tests of neglect.12 yoked prism exposure, all of the patients tion and spatial representation.12 It was
This study brought the concept of using with neglect showed pointing errors that unclear whether PAs effects were limited
PA as a treatment for left neglect to the were shifted to the right. After adaptation to tasks involving a visuo-motor response
forefront. The apparent beneficial effect to the base-left yoked prism, both neglect such as line cancellation, line bisection,
of PA, paired with its non-invasive nature, and control patients showed leftward drawing a daisy from memory, and other
make it an exciting and viable treatment shifts when asked to point straight ahead. tests that Rossetti et al used.
option for USI patients. A multitude of For the patients with neglect, this leftward
further investigations have been done to shift countered their original rightward
Volume 20/2009/Number 4/Page 102 Journal of Behavioral Optometry
Rode et al21 explored whether PA could act to his clothes in two minutes. The num- inforce the idea that PA works on higher
on more than just a sensory-motor level, by ber of pieces not removed was recorded. spatial representations in addition to vi-
improving mental space representation in The procedure was repeated after PA. The suo-motor coordination.
patients with neglect. Their research used results indicated that neglect in personal Lastly, Serino et al6 investigated whether
four subjects (two neglect patients and space was not significantly improved. the PAs effects were generalized to differ-
two control subjects) and involved testing Frassinetti et als8 study is important be- ent visuo-spatial functions. These included
the effect of PA on neglect at three levels: cause the results confirm Rossetti12 and different distances from the subject (per-
a sensory-motor level (a manual pointing Rodes21 previous findings that PA is not sonal space and extrapersonal space), and
task), an intermediate level (drawing a dai- only instrumental in the recalibration of different sensory modalities. More specif-
sy from memory), and a motor-free cogni- visuomotor coordination, but that it also ically, they investigated how PA affected
tive level (a mental imagery task). In the extends to affect the organization of high- visual exploration, internal visuo-spatial
latter task patients were asked to picture a er levels of spatial representation. It is representation, and visuo-spatial compe-
map of France in their mind and name as interesting that neglect symptoms in per- tencies in activities of daily living (ADL).
many towns as possible on the map within sonal space did not show improvement. They reported that the effects of PA were
two minutes. The subjects were exposed This might indicate that the cognition of not limited to tasks performed with the
for three minutes to base left yoked prism personal space is not a higher-order visual adapted limb (i.e. writing tasks performed
which produced a 10 degree shift in their spatial function. In terms of visual devel- with the right hand after that same hand
visual field. Results for each of the three opment, this possibility makes sense since had been used as the pointing hand dur-
testing areas were recorded before PA the understanding of oneself occurs before ing PA). Tasks that did not require a motor
(pre-test), immediately after PA (post- one is able to understand the external vi- response also improved including: figure
test), and 24 hours later (late-test). On the sual world.22 The improvement in neglect scanning, room description, and reading.
sensory-motor level, the manual pointing is evident not only in tasks that require a ADL such as dialing a telephone, writing
test showed a leftward shift in all patients. visuomotor response, but also in those that an address, sorting coins and telling time
The intermediate level task (daisy draw- require only a non-visuomotor response also improved after PA. In contrast to Fra-
ing) showed improved performance for (room description test and reading test). ssinetti et al,8 Serino et al found that ne-
both neglect patients in the post-test, with Results of a study by McIntosh et al23 glect in personal space did improve based
some retained improvement after 24 hours support this idea that PA improves per- on performance of the Fluff Test under
in the late-test. The mental imagery task formance in both of these types of tasks. both visual and kinesthetic conditions.
also produced an interesting result. In They reported that PA improved neglect This indicated that both visual exploration
the post-test, both patients with neglect on a haptic circle centering task, a spatial and the patients internal body representa-
showed an increase in the number of task that had no explicit visual compo- tion and awareness can also improve af-
towns they had named on the left side of nent. For this test, the patient was blind- ter PA. However, Serino et als research
the map. In the late-test, the patients with folded, and a 1cm thick square of plastic found that PA does not improve neglect
neglect still showed an increase in the to- with a 30cm diameter circular groove cut symptoms in proprioceptive sensitivity
tal number of towns named, but it was not into it was placed in front of her. The pa- and motor functions.
statistically significant. Both control sub- tient was asked to use her right hand to The optometric application of ground-in
jects showed no difference in the number explore the stimulus before the test began yoked prism to improve the patient with
of towns named before, immediately after, by running her finger over the groove. In USIs ability to be aware of the neglect
and 24 hours after PA. Rode et als results each experimental trial, the patients fin- side and to avert obstacles that may be hid-
indicate that PA may also stimulate cogni- ger was placed in the groove beginning den in this neglected area has previously
tive processes in patients with neglect, at at either North, South, East, or West with been proposed.1,2,10 In this regard the ba-
least at the level of mental imagery repre- respect to her. She then traced around the sis is solely the optical effect of the yoked
sentation. circle until she reached the starting point, prism. In view of the aforementioned stud-
In another such study, Frassinetti et al8 in- which was marked by the experimenters ies, it is evident that yoked prism can do
vestigated which spatial areas of neglect finger. When her finger encountered the more than simply shift a patients visual
PA improved: far space (extra-personal), experimenters finger, the patient was world optically. It not only improves ac-
near space (peri-personal), and/or on the asked to move her fingertip to the center curacy in pointing tasks but can promote
patient himself (personal space). The re- of the circle. Her accuracy in reaching the better attention to the neglected side in
sults of this study indicate that neglect in geometric center of the circle was record- terms of handwriting, visual imagery, and
far space and near space were significant- ed. McIntosh et al designed this task to be awareness of ones surroundings.
ly improved after PA, as tested through a a tactile version of the line bisection test. How Long Do Effects of PA Last?
room description test and object-reaching They proposed that the patients improved Another major question in terms of using
test respectively. In order to determine performance after PA reiterated the idea PA for the rehabilitation of neglect relates
if the effect of PA on neglect existed in that PA also improved performance on to length of its effect. In Rossetti et als
personal space, the Fluff Test was per- tasks that were haptic in nature. study,12 patients were exposed for two to
formed. This involved attaching pieces of In 2006 Rode et al24 reported on a patient five minutes to yoked prism that produced
adhesive paper to various body parts on whose spatial dysgraphia improved with a 10 degree optical shift. The effect of PA
the left side of a patients body while the PA. Although the report only included lasted for at least two hours. Farne et al25
patient is blindfolded. The blindfold was one patient, the results further support the found that the same exposure produced
then removed and the patient was asked aforementioned studies with larger num- PA effects that were still measurable af-
to remove all the pieces of paper attached bers of subjects. All of these studies re-
Journal of Behavioral Optometry Volume 20/2009/Number 4/Page 103
Table 2: Summary of Research Studies Cited by making a leftward correction in point-
Duration of ing. They are then forced to shift both their
Study Conclusions
Effect eyes and visual attention toward the side of
Rossetti, et al (1998)12 PA* improves symptoms of neglect At least 2 hours their neglect (left side). Serino et al15 de-
Rode, et al (2001)21
Improvement on imagery tasks with no manual
At least 24 hours
scribed similar results.
component In their most recent study, Serino et al6
Farne, et al (2002)25 Disappearance of prism after-effect and re-appear- At least 24 hours compared the effect of PA to visuomo-
ance of neglect occurred around the same time
tor training without induced PA. They
Neglect symptoms improved only in patients who
Frassinetti, et al
showed after-effect; Improvement noted in extra-
At least 5 weeks termed the latter condition, neutral point-
(2002)8 ing (NP). These researchers hoped to
personal and peri-personal space, but not personal
space determine whether intense visuomotor
McIntosh, et al Improvement on spatial judgment task with no At least 3 months training without PA promoted some re-
(2002)23 explicit visual component covery of neglect symptoms. The results
Angeli, et al (2004)28 PA reduced oculomotor bias and improved reading Not assessed indicated that while repetition of point-
in neglect patients
ing movements toward visual stimuli im-
18 Brain regions involved in neglect: right cerebellum, Not assessed
Luaute, et al (2006) proved performance in both the PA group
left thalamus, left temporo-occipital cortex, left me-
dial temporal cortex, right posterior parietal cortex and the NP group, the improvement was
PA involves two mechanisms: spatial realignment significantly larger in the group that used
Newport and Jackson Not assessed
(cerebellum) and strategic control (posterior parietal PA. Additionally, after the initial study,
(2006)17
cortex)
the NP group was subjected to PA, which
Rode, et al (2006)24 PA improves spatial dysgraphia 24-48 hours
resulted in further amelioration of neglect
Resetting of oculomotor system leads to neglect
Serino, et al (2006)15
improvement
At least 3 months symptoms. These results are not entirely
surprising since NP can facilitate a pa-
Improvement noted in extra-personal, peri-person-
Serino, et al (2007)6 al, and personal space; no improvement for motor At least 6 months tients improvement in his/her hand-eye
functions coordination through repetition. As hand/
Luaute, et al (2009)16
During PA: anterior intraparietal sulcus involved in
Not assessed
eye coordination improves, visuomotor
error detection; parieto-occipital sulcus involved in coordination improves. The patient will
error correction; cerebellum plays a role in spatial
realignment
show improvement in pointing the eyes
Visuomotor training alone may partially improve
where the hand is located in space, even
5
Serino, et al (2009) 6 months if it may, at times, point into the area of
neglect, but PA improves neglect to a significantly
greater degree neglect. In this way pointing alone can
*PA: Prism Adaptation provide some improvement in attention
ter 24 hours. Rode et al21 demonstrated By What Mechanism(s) Does to the affected side. The patient becomes
that some effects could be retained as long PA Work and What Neural better able to point accurately even when
as 24 hours after prism exposure in their Structures Are Involved? the target encroaches upon or moves into
study on PA and visual imagery, though At one time, researchers considered the the neglected area.
the effects were not as robust as immedi- after-effect (improved pointing after the Serino et al5 also cited the role of repeti-
ately after prism exposure. Frassinetti et yoked prism was removed) to be of para- tious pointing in PA. They stated further
al8 worked with subjects who underwent mount importance in the amelioration of that it employs an even more effective
two weeks of PA training for 20 minutes neglect with PA.27 Studies such as Farne et mechanism. It also provides a sensory-
each day, and found that the effects of PA al25 and Rossetti et al12 showed that prism motor mismatch for which the patient
lasted for at least five weeks. Serino et al5 after-effect and improvement in neglect needs to compensate. During PA the pa-
followed the same schedule of 20-minute symptoms disappeared around the same tient experiences a visual field shift. The
treatments daily for five weeks, and found time. Thus, it seemed to follow that the af- patient then promotes a compensatory
that their subjects retained the beneficial ter-effect was causing the improvement in shift of the eye and hand reference frames
result up to six months post-treatment. neglect symptoms. However, Frassinetti8 to the left. As this compensation is made,
Clinically speaking, the relatively long- found that improvement on visuo-spatial error reduction (during PA) and after-ef-
lasting effect of PA that has been reported tasks lasted for five weeks, while the prism fect (after PA) occur, showing that PA is
may impact how optometrists care for pa- after-effect vanished within 84 hours. happening.
tients with USI. As an alternative to pre- Angeli et al28 postulated that PA effectually It is unclear precisely which neural struc-
scribing ground-in yoked prism for full resets ocular scanning behavior by induc- tures are involved in PA, but current re-
time wear for patients with neglect, vision ing a leftward eye deviation, which then search has proposed new theories. At one
therapy including 20 minutes of PA daily facilitates the patients exploration of the time, it was thought that PA occurred due
for five-week periods, repeated every six neglected side of visual space. Their study to motor learning in the cerebellum.17 Le-
months may be just as beneficial. It could showed that a single PA session reduced the sion studies in both humans and monkeys
serve as an adjunct to vision therapy tech- rightward oculomotor bias in patients with supported this proposition. Both monkeys
niques that stress scanning into the affect- left neglect and improved reading. Angeli with cerebellum ablation and humans with
ed field, or computer based therapies.26 et al28 held that as patients try to compen- cerebellar lesions did not demonstrate
Table 2 summarizes the studies cited to sate for the mismatch between what they PA.17 In 1996, Clower et al29 used positron
this point. are seeing and where their hand is pointing emission tomography (PET) to directly
examine brain areas activated during a
Volume 20/2009/Number 4/Page 104 Journal of Behavioral Optometry
manual pointing task while the subjects function due to PA, but a better under- 14. Griffin JR, Grisham JD. Binocular Anomalies.
Diagnosis and Vision Therapy, 4th ed.Santa Ana,
wore yoked prism. They found that the standing of how PA improves neglect CA:Optometric Extension Program, 2007:90-93.
posterior parietal cortex was activated. symptoms could shed light on what causes 15. Serino A, Angeli V, Frassinetti F, Ladavas
Luaute et al16,18 produced further evidence neglect. This leads to better treatment mo- E. Mechanisms underlying neglect recov-
to support this proposition. In 2006, Lu- dalities in the future. PA is a non-invasive ery from prism adaptation. Neuropsychologia
2006;44:1068-78.
aute et al used18 functional imaging PET to treatment for left neglect, and its effects 16. Luaute J, Schwartz S, Rossetti Y, Spiridon M,
examine which brain areas show increased improve not only visuo-motor responses, et al. Dynamic changes in brain activity during
bloodflow during prism adaptation. They but higher levels of spatial representation prism adaptation. J Neurosci 2009;29:169-78.
17. Newport R, Jackson SR. Posterior parietal cortex
found that PA occurs with a modulation and cognition as well. Clinically, the op- and the dissociable components of prism adapta-
of neuron activity in the right cerebel- tometric management of USI has long tion. Neuropsychologia 2006; 44: 2757-65.
lum, left thalamus, left temporo-occipital employed the use of yoked prism. The 18. Luaute J, Michel C, Rode G, Pisella L, et al. Func-
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suggest that PA ameliorates left neglect a role in the behavioral management of 19. Rode G, Klos T, Courtois-Jacquin S, Rossetti Y,
et al. Neglect and prism adaptation: A new thera-
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Special thanks to Drs. Esther Han, Neera et al. Prism adaptation to optical deviation allevi-
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a reduction of symptoms and improved July 30, 2009

Journal of Behavioral Optometry Volume 20/2009/Number 4/Page 105

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