The aim of this research was to study the behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of visual attention orientation to unseen stimuli presented to the blind hemifield of hemianopic patients, and the existence of hemispheric differences for this kind of unconscious attention. Behaviorally, by using a Posner paradigm, we found a significant attention effect in speed of response to unseen stimuli similar to that observed in the sighted hemifield and in healthy participants for visible stimuli. Moreover, event-related potential (ERP) and oscillatory attention-related activity were present following stimulus presentation to the blind hemifield. Importantly, in patients this pattern of activity was different as a function of the side of the brain lesion: Left damaged patients showed attention-related ERP and oscillatory activity broadly similar to that found in healthy participants. In contrast, right damaged patients showed a radically different pattern. These data confirm and extend to neurophysiological mechanisms the existence of unconscious visual orienting and are in keeping with a right hemisphere dominance for both unconscious and conscious attention.

中文翻译：

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偏盲患者无意识注意力定向的神经基础：半球差异。

本研究的目的是研究视觉注意定向与呈现给偏盲患者盲侧的看不见的刺激的行为和神经生理学相关性，以及这种无意识注意的半球差异的存在。在行为上，通过使用波斯纳范式，我们发现了对看不见的刺激的反应速度的显着注意效应，类似于在视力正常的半场和健康参与者对可见刺激所观察到的反应速度。此外，在对盲区进行刺激后，出现事件相关电位 (ERP) 和振荡注意相关活动。重要的是，在患者中，这种活动模式因大脑病变一侧的不同而不同：左侧受损患者表现出与健康参与者大致相似的注意力相关 ERP 和振荡活动。相比之下，右侧受损的患者表现出完全不同的模式。这些数据证实了无意识视觉定向的存在并将其扩展到神经生理学机制，并且与无意识和有意识注意的右半球优势保持一致。