Research: Cognitive neuroscience

Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland

Neglect is a complicated neuropsychological syndrome which leads to ignorance of the left personal or extrapersonal space. Neglect is usually a result of brain trauma or vascular incident, stroke or hemorrhage in the right tempoparietal lobe.

Our aim is to determine subtypes of neglect with their special features and relate the findings to accurate images of the damaged brain areas. All patients are studied in laboratory conditions with psychophysical measurements and monitoring and imaging (EEG and fMRI) techniques.

NBS adds a new dimension, causality, to the observed correlations between imaging findings and individual symptoms. We want to modify the functions of the damaged networks, not just observe them.

We characterize the critical brain functions related to processing of the neglected information during the acute phase and during recovery from the brain damage. Results can be further utilized in more effective rehabilitation of neglect.

Courtesy of prof. Heikki Hämäläinen