Mrs. Smith, an intelligent woman in her sixties, has suffered a massive stroke, affecting the back portions of her right cerebral hemisphere. She has perfectly preserved intelligence―and humor. ①She sometimes complains to her nurse that she has not put dessert or coffee on her tray. When the nurse says, “But, it is right there, on the left,” Mrs. Smith does not seem to understand what ②she says, and does not look to the left. If the nurse gently turns Mrs. Smith’s head, so that the dessert comes into sight, in the preserved right half of ③her visual field, she says, “Oh, there it is―it wasn’t there before.” Actually, ④she has totally lost the idea of “left.” Sometimes, she complains that her portions are too small, but this is because she only eats from the right half of the plate―it does not occur to ⑤her that it has a left half as well.
*cerebral hemisphere: 대뇌 반구