hemineglect
Etymology
From hemi- + neglect.
hemineglect means A neuropsychological condition in which, after damage to one hemisphere of the brain, the patient exhibits a deficit in attention to and awareness of one side of space. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
HEMINEGLECT — [Noun] A neuropsychological condition, typically resulting from unilateral brain damage, characterized by a deficit in attention to and awareness of the contralateral side of space. From the combining form hemi- (from Greek ἡμι-, "half") + neglect (from Latin neglectus, past participle of negligere, "to disregard"). Unlike "agnosia" (a failure of recognition despite intact sensation) or "hemianopia" (a literal blindness in half the visual field), hemineglect is a profound and active inattention: the world is perceived but half of it is systematically, functionally ignored. It is the patient shaving only the right side of his face, the artist drawing all the flowers on the right edge of the page, the diner eating food solely from the right half of the plate—a stark, unarguable demonstration that the world we experience is a frail construct. The quiet truth it reveals is that the self can be amputated from its own experience without a single sensory nerve being cut.
noun
- A neuropsychological condition in which, after damage to one hemisphere of the brain, the patient exhibits a deficit in attention to and awareness of one side of space.