When Is Seeing Not Believing? Examining the Neural Correlates of Egocentric, Stimulus- Centered, and Object-Centered Neglect via Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
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2013
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Haverford College. Department of Psychology
Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation (LCNS), Perelman School of Medicine
Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation (LCNS), Perelman School of Medicine
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Thesis
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eng
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Haverford users only
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Abstract
This research represents a first step in an attempt to isolate the neural correlates of egocentric, stimulus-centered, and object-centered neglect via Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), with the hopes of applying these findings to emerging neuro-rehabilitative techniques. In this paper, the results from the first experiment in a three-experiment design are reported. While no explicitly neglect-like symptoms were observed, two novel effects were found. First, in a modified, “colors” line bisection task, there were significant accuracy differences in determining whether the left or right line segments were longer in a non-TMS condition. This implies that healthy individuals display leftward biases in attention. Second, in TMS conditions, a significant decrease in accuracy in comparison to non-TMS trials was observed in both left and right trial types, suggesting that TMS caused inattention to peripheral areas of space on both the contralateral and ipsilateral sides. Potential explanations for these unusual results and future directions are discussed.