Abstract
The Behavioural inattention test (BIT) is a standardized test battery for unilateral spatial neglect. The BIT conventional test consists of the cancellation, the copying, the line bisection, and the drawing subtests, which have long been used for clinical diagnosis of neglect. Each subtest has the cut-off score that was determined in the standardization process of the BIT, Japanese version. When patients with right-hemisphere damage show abnormal scores even in one subtest, their test performances and daily activities should be scrutinized for the presence of neglect. Chronic patients with neglect may achieve the normal score in the cancellation tests with compensatory searching strategy,which often takes longer duration. Evaluation of the time spent for the BIT cancellation subtests may improve detection of neglect in the chronic stage.The tasks adopted in the BIT conventional test have been modified and applied to the study to approach the mechanisms of neglect. The present paper reviewed some of these studies and discussed on the attentional mechanism of neglect in relation to the perceptual and motor interaction.
