Psychological assessment of visual hemispatial neglect: Standardization and approbation of the modified digit cancellation test

Abstract

Objective. To study the phenomena of visual-hemispatial neglect in healthy people and patients with brain diseases of different genesis. Material and methods. Eighty-eight patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, 68 patients with exogenous organic brain diseases and 240 healthy adults of different age were included in the study. The digit cancellation test modified by the authors was used. Results and conclusion. The validity of the modified digit cancellation test was approved and its age standards were obtained. In healthy right-handed people, there was the bias of attention focus to the left, the decrease of asymmetry intensity of visual-spatial inattention during physiological aging and the presence of some clinical peculiarities of neglect in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and lateralized organic damages of the brain. This variant of the test can be recommended for practical use as the sensitive psychometric tool.