Have you heard of hemineglygence? It is a type of alteration that occurs frequently in people who have suffered brain damage, if we try to look at the root of the word we can understand its meaning, however there are many different types of hemineglygence.
The morpheme? Hemi-? It tells us half of something, in this case we are referring to our visual field.
- If we approach this concept with the world of brain damage.
- We will understand that a hemineglygence would mean a lack of attention to half of our body; in particular.
- It would mean an absolute neglect to any stimulus (auditory.
- Tactile.
- Visual?).
- Happens in this half of our body.
In a way, it’s as if people don’t see what’s going on in that half of their body, it’s funny to see this change, because that’s the feeling that occurs when we talk or observe a patient who has a hemineglygence.
In fact, these people are fully aware of the stimulus that occurs in this visual field. The problem is in the attention. They don’t take care of that part of the body, it’s like this side ceases to exist. But when they are encouraged to focus their attention on that side, they end up realizing it perfectly, whatever the stimulus, these people are aware of it.
As we already know, in our brain we have two different hemispheres, when there is brain damage in one of the hemispheres, the part of our body opposite the damaged hemisphere is particularly affected, that is, the side of our body opposite the hemisphere. the injury is affected.
Therefore, if the injury occurred in the right hemisphere, probably the most affected part will be the left; on the other hand, if the injury occurred in our left hemisphere, the right part of our body will be affected, this bodily harm may vary. from hemiparesis (partial paralysis) to hemiplegia (total paralysis on one side), among others.
Hemineglygence usually occurs in lesions in the right hemisphere and is the most common situation. As a result, the left side is affected, a side that people with hemineglygence do not pay attention to because it is as if it has ceased to exist, these people are not oriented to the left side and are not able to react to what is presented to them. happening on that side.
The care of patients with hemineglygence focuses only on the side controlled by their healthy brain hemisphere, especially on the right side. It is very common to realize that they do not listen to us when we speak on the left, on the other hand, it changes radically when we say the same thing, but this time on the right.
“Oh, I haven’t seen you? This is usually the most common reaction when this happens. Therefore, one of the jobs that is done from neuropsychology is to work with that care that is totally “damaged”. How? Help redirect the person to the opposite hemisphere of the injury.
We must also strengthen awareness that they have this deficit. Hemineglygence is often accompanied by anosognosia, a phenomenon that causes the patient to ignore their difficulties.
That’s why we need to help patients become aware of their difficulty, so they can fill that void and become their own guides when they don’t find what they’re looking for. on the left side, the side that “ceased to exist. “