visual neglect

visual neglect 

A rare phenomenon in which a patient can see all of the visual field binocularly but somehow ignores objects on one side (e.g. patient may draw a diagram omitting one side or shave only one side of the face). It is due to a lesion of the brain (e.g. a stroke), most often in the right cortex and the patient, although conscious of objects in the left visual field does not pay attention to them. The impairment occurs in the posterior parietal lobe, which receives projections from the primary visual cortex. A confrontation visual field test in which objects are presented to both sides simultaneously often facilitates detection of the condition. See extinction phenomenon.