A virtual model of homonymous hemianopia reveals visual search disorders in patients with unilateral occipital stroke

Patients with homonymous hemianopia (HH) are often crucially disabled during self-guided visual exploration of their natural environment. It is a matter of debate as to whether the abnormal visual search behaviour is related to a pure sensory deficit, a deficient spatial organization or individual compensation strategies. We tested the hypothesis that visual search behaviour in HH patients is purely determined by the sensory (visual) deficit by comparing them to healthy subjects with a technically simulated, virtual HH (VHH). Eye movements were recorded during an explorative visual search task in three groups: (…