Allochiria

A neurological disorder in which stimuli presented to one side of the patient's body are responded to as if they were presented to the opposite side. Can result from damage to the right parietal lobe in humans. Patients may also show this symptom reproducing a drawing (in which the components of the left side of the drawing are presented on the right side, but in mirror image).

Allochiria may occur in the somatosensory sense, whereby a touch on the left arm is felt as being a touch on the right arm, in the auditory sense, in which a person on the left, speaking to the patient, is responded to as if they were on the patient's right; or in the visual sense, in which a stimuli presented on the left is described as having been presented on the right. This disorder often co-occurs with unilateral neglect.

Allochiria is also known as allesthesia.

References:

1. Halligan, P. W., Marshall, J., & Wade, D. (1992). Left on the right: Allochiria in a case of left visuo-spatial neglect. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 55, 717-719.
2. Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. (1990). Fundamentals of human neuropsychology. Freeman: New York.

(Revised October 2009)