Spatial neglect. A representational disorder? A festschrift for Edoardo Bisiach

The book celebrates the work of Edoardo Bisiach - one of the founders of Italian neuropsychology - on unilateral spatial neglect. Neglect is a deficit, most frequently associated with damage to the right cerebral hemisphere, whereby patients are unaware of sensory events occurring in parts of space opposite to the cerebral lesion, and fail to organze movements towards the neglected portion of space. Patients may neglect one side of the space around them and/or of their own body. Neglect disrupts everyday activities that require spatial exploration and awareness of objects and the body, such as eating, dressing, and reading. Furthermore, patients are typically unaware of unilateral neglect, which interferes with functional recovery and rehabilitation. In 1978 Bisiach definitely demonstrated that unilateral spatial neglect involves the mental representations of space, showing that patients fail to recollect left-sided details (from a given vantage point) of the Piazza del Duomo di Milano (illustrated on the front cover with a painting by Dino Buzzati). Bisiach's seminal work made it clear that spatial neglect provides a unique window to investigate the multi-component nature of spatial cognition and conscious experience, in its functional architecture and neural underpinnings, paving the way to an enormous development of research. The book presents state-of-the-art research on unilateral spatial neglect, with contributions by leading scientists from Europe, Israel, North America, and Australia. It will be essential reading for neuropsychologists, neurologists, and all students of cognition and its disorders.