Egocentric and allocentric spatial representations in a patient with Balint-like syndrome: A single-case study

Previous studies suggested that egocentric and allocentric spatial representations are supported by neural networks in the occipito-parietal (dorsal) and occipito-temporal (ventral) streams, respectively. The present study aimed to explore the integrity of ego and allo-centric spatial representations in a patient (GP) who presented bilateral occipitoparietal damage consistent with the picture of a Balint-like syndrome. GP and healthy controls were asked to provide memory-based spatial judgments on triads of objects after a short (1.5sec) or long (5sec) delay. The results showed that GP's performance was selectively impaired in the Ego/1.5sec delay condition. As a whole, our findings suggest that GP's spared ventral stream could generate shortand long-term allocentric representations. Furthermore, the stored perceptual representation processed within the ventral stream might have been used to generate long-term egocentric representation. Conversely, the generation of short-term egocentric representation appeared to be selectively undermined by the damage of the dorsal stream. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study investigated the integrity of ego and allo-centric spatial representations in a patient with bilateral occipitoparietal damage, showing that the patient's performance was selectively impaired in the ego-centric/1.5 second delay condition. The findings suggest that the spared ventral stream in the patient could generate short and long-term allo-centric representations.