Grounding Figural Attention in Left Neglect

The magnitude of left visuo-spatial neglect is sensitive to figural shape. Thus patients who bisect horizontal lines with a substantial rightward error may be significantly more accurate when marking the centre of squares. We now report a patient with gross left neglect after multiple right-hemisphere strokes whose impairment is quantitatively dependent upon the shape of the ground on which lines are presented for bisection. The modulatory effect obtained suggests that background ‘panoramic’ attention is still operative even in cases of very severe neglect.