Mirror Approach for the Patients with Unilateral Spatial Neglect and Mirror Agnosia

Abstract

"Mirror Agnosia" is characterized by searching for the mirror image and showing difficulty of modifying behavior even after the object is presented in real space (Ramachandran, 1997). The possibility of therapeutic intervention of using a mirror for unilateral spatial neglect (USN) with mirror agnosia was suggested, but few researches on mirror agnosia and mirror approach for USN have been reported. The purpose of this study was to confirm the influence of the use of a mirror for USN with mirror agnosia. Two patients with left hemiparesis with USN were evaluated. We propped a mirror on the right side of the patient parallel to the sagittal plane and presented a ball apart from it. We asked the patient to grasp it with looking into the mirror. If they could not reach the actual ball, we shifted the ball closer to the mirror and tried again. When two patients grasped the ball, we asked them to reach it repeatedly. Albert test was executed before and after the session. Both patients could not reach the ball initially, but were able to grasp it when it was closer to the mirror. They showed an improvement in the Albert test after this approach. This method might be useful therapeutic intervention for USN with mirror agnosia.