Effects of Visual Assist Signals on Unilateral Spatial Neglect and Its Measurement

Abstract

In this study, visual assist signals of unilateral spatial neglect (USN) were created from Kinsbourne’s hypothesis and implemented in an inspection system. While conventional inspection is a fixed view of the patient’s ability, the developed system enables measurement of a variation in the ability of USN patients with and without visual assist signals. Experimental results using the developed system showed that visual assist signals could alleviate USN and other attention-disorder behaviors but that it is necessary to select visual assist signals according to the patient’s symptoms. In addition, the difference between the presence and absence of the visual assist signal made it possible to measure and visualize zone of proximal development, which had been treated conceptually. In the future, it is expected that the developed visual assist signals implemented in augmented reality (AR) devices will improve the daily activities of USN patients.