Combined Damage to the Right Hemispheric Hand Area in the Primary Motor and Sensory Area Plays a Critical Role in Motor Hemineglect.

Combined Damage to the Right Hemispheric Hand Area in the Primary Motor and Sensory Area Plays a Critical Role in Motor Hemineglect.  Retrieved from Proquest

Hemineglect is where one hemisphere of the brain ignores information that would normally be important.  A subject with hemineglect is not aware of the deficit.  Research has shown that a small area in the brain may be responsible for motor hemineglect.  In this study, surgery was performed on 29 awake subjects.  The patients had tumors of different varieties.  Hand strength of the subjects was assessed prior to surgery using a 6-point likert scale.  Subjects had fMRI and DTI ((I could not find what this acronym meant.  I would like to know about it though.))  This was done to see the areas active when using their hand and arm so the physicians could attempt to make issues minimal during the surgery.  Surgery was then performed on the subjects.  During surgery, assessments of motor hemineglect were performed.  Patients developed deficits during surgery; none of the patients showed motor deficits prior to surgery. Two of the cases had brain tumors near the hand area of the primary motor and sensory cortices.  They developed motor hemineglect in the left hand during surgery.  Results show that tumors or high CSF near the M1 or S1 for an area is related to motor hemineglect for that area.  During this study, some improvement was noticed after decreasing CSF near the M1 and S1 areas.