Damage to which brain region is most commonly associated with hemispatial neglect?

• A. Temporal lobe
• B. Occipital lobe
• C. Parietal lobe
• D. Frontal lobe

Answer: (C)

Hemispatial neglect arises from disruption of spatial attention networks, most often due to damage in the parietal lobe, especially on the right side. The parietal cortex helps create and maintain an attentional map of space, so when it’s damaged, attention to the contralateral side (usually the left) is reduced or absent, producing neglect. Other lobes produce different deficits—occipital damage tends to cause primary visual field cuts, temporal damage affects object recognition and memory, and frontal damage impacts planning and control—so they don’t typically produce the classic neglect pattern. Therefore, injury to the parietal lobe best explains hemispatial neglect.