The Puzzles Test and the Red Shapes Test as new diagnostic tools for neglect syndrome

INTRODUCTION: Neuropsychological methods for diagnosing neglect syndrome (NS) are focused on identifying the inability of patients to respond to stimuli localized in contralesional space. There are a large number of methods capable of diagnosing spatial neglect, but at the same time having various limitations and restrictions in their use. OBJECTIVES: To devise and to test universal diagnostic techniques for visuospatial neglect detection. METHODS: 1) A.R. Luria test battery; Trail Making Test (Part A); the Bells Test; 2) Authors’ methods: the Puzzles Test, the Red Shapes Test. A total of 47 patients after stroke with right hemisphere damage participated in the study and were divided into a target (18 patients with NS) and a control (29 patients without NS) groups. The Puzzles Test consists of three tasks: turning over cards, completing a sentence using cards with letters, completing a picture. The Red Shapes Test consisted in the search for a variable number of geometric shapes. Objective indicators of the study: total task completion time, the number of left omissions. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the tests to NS was examined using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Differences in the number of omissions and task completion time between patients with and without spatial neglect were statistically significant regarding all tasks: turning over cards (p=0.01), completing a sentence (p<0.001), completing a picture (p<0.001), finding geometric shapes (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The Puzzles Test and Red Shapes Test along with the foreign tests (the Bells Test, Trail Making Test) are sufficiently effective methods for spatial neglect detection. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.