Global attentional neglect of segmented lines in Parkinson’s disease.

Global attention requires disengagement from focal elements of stimuli. Since people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) may reveal impaired disengagement, this study attempted to learn if people with PD may be impaired at allocating global attention. Healthy adults and people with PD attempted to bisect lines of uniform thickness and lines composed of two segments of unequal thickness and length. When the longer line segment was to the right of the shorter segment, the group with PD demonstrated an increased deviation toward the longer segment, supporting the postulate that people with PD have an impaired ability to disengage focal attention and engage global spatial attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]