Experimental Web Service and Eye-Tracking Setup for Unilateral Spatial Neglect Assessment

Abstract

Unilateral Spatial Neglect is a cognitive impairment commonly observed in patients after right hemispheric lesions. A patient with this condition will show a lack of attention or response to visual stimuli presented to the left space. In order to assess visual neglect, several “paper and pencil” tests are traditionally used, like the Albert’s Test or the Bells Test. Computer supported tests have been also proposed like Visual Spatial Search Task (VISSTA) or Starry Night Test (SNT). In this kind of tests, the patient is asked to detect all occurrences of a target among distractors (“cancellation task”). However, it has been noticed that these tests are not able to identify subtle but relevant NSU, especially in the chronic stage. In addition, compensatory attentional strategies can be developed by the patients in order to pass a test in which they have unlimited time. It is then important to measure reaction time and to adapt tests to increase diagnostic accuracy. This abstract presents READAPT an application supporting the Bells Test, with the aim of overcoming the limits of existing static paper-and-pencil diagnostic tools and to facilitate recording and analysis of patient’s visual scanning.