Attentional Recovery: Behavioral, ERP and fMRI Measures

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The current research will characterize the electrophysiological and hemodynamic changes coincident with behavioral recovery in patients with hemispatial neglect. Hemispatial neglect is a prevalent impairment caused by stroke and is prognostic for poor recovery. Patients with neglect are impaired in attending to the side of space opposite their lesion. Thus, to track recovery, the proposed project will examine changes in stroke patients' performance on an attentional task. To compliment the behavioral data, both event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods will be used to provide a neurobiological profile of recovery. The electrophysiological data will be instrumental in characterizing any temporal changes in attentional orienting. The fMRI data will provide information as to which brain areas, if any, functionally compensate for the damaged tissue. Although the data will contribute to psychological models of attentional allocation, they will also importantly broaden the understanding of recovery from neglect (in particular) and neural plasticity (in general). Hopefully these data, along with other researchers' investigations, will inspire new rehabilitative approaches for stroke patients with hemispatial neglect.