[Attention and neglect: neurological basis, assessment and disorders].

OBJECTIVE: Attention phenomenology is a wide subject, in this revision we will explain attention and its relationship with behavioral neglect. DEVELOPMENT: Selective attention is the ability to throw the focus of awareness toward behaviorally relevant events in the personal and extrapersonal space. Severe alteration of these mechanisms constitutes unilateral neglect in patients with contralateral brain damage. Unilateral neglect is one of the most behaviorally devastating syndrome. There are different behavioral neglect: attentional (perceptual), intentional (motor), motivational and representational aspects of unilateral neglect. Left side neglect after right hemisphere lesions is more common (31 to 46%) than right sided neglect following lesions in the left hemisphere (2 to 12%). CONCLUSION: One year after a cerebrovascular accident only 1/3 of the patients with unilateral neglect persist with this handicap.