Multisensory integration and awareness in hemispatial neglect

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Kun Dong¹ (kun.dong@donders.ru.nl), Arianna Zuanazzi^2,3, Valentina Varalta^4,5, Giorgia Rotundo⁴, Cristina Fonte⁴, Nicola Smania^4,5, Uta Noppeney^1,2; ¹Donders Institute, ²University of Birmingham, ³New York University, ⁴University of Verona, ⁵Neurorehabilitation Unit, AOUI Verona

Hemispatial neglect which is characterized by impaired awareness for signals in the contralesional hemifield often arises after right hemispheric stroke. Although hemispatial neglect has primarily been studied in the visual domain, it is inherently a multisensory phenomenon. This study explores the complex interplay between visual and auditory processing in patients with hemispatial neglect. Twenty patients with right sided lesions and contralesional neglect (N = 20; 14 males, mean age 63.75, ranging from 33 to 83 years) and 16 control subjects (N = 16; 6 males, mean age 70.81 years, ranging from 62 to 83 years) participated in this audiovisual ventriloquist paradigm. On each trial, a flash appeared in the left or right hemifield or was absent. In synchrony with the flash, a white noise was played from the left, middle, or right side. Participants answered three questions: 1) “Where was the sound: left, middle or right?”; 2) “Did you see a flash?”; and 3) “Where was the flash; up or down?”. Results showed that auditory stimuli significantly improved visual detection, with perceptual gains correlating with neglect severity measured via the Catherine Bergego Scale scores. Visual stimuli also influenced where observers perceived the sound, but this effect did not correlate with neglect severity. These findings unravel the intricate interplay between multisensory integration and awareness of hemispatial neglect and suggest that multisensory integration may reduce attentional deficits in neglect.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Multisensory