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24 Left & right: Healthy people helping stroke research This is likewhat happens in stroke patients with a condition called spatial neglect, where they ignore one side of space – usually the left. For instance, theymight bump into things, ignore food on one side of the plate, or read just half a page. Corinne’sfindingsuggestedthatdrowsiness inhealthypeoplecouldhelpher tostudy howthebrainpays attentionacross space, givingher a safeandsimpleway toexplore howattentionworkswithout needing to rely onstrokepatients themselves. A Neurological Foundation repatriation fellowship brought her back to New Zealand fromCambridge University, UK, allowing her to set up her ongoing research programme. Using brainwave recordings (EEG) as healthy right-handers performed tasks, Corinne found that two areas on the right side of the brain – the supramarginal gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus – are activewhen people become drowsy and start ignoring the left side. These areas seem to be important for staying alert and aware of space, and could become therapeutic targets following brain injury. Corinne is now studying left-handed people doing the same task. So far, they don’t show the same loss of awareness for the left side of theworldwhen drowsy. “We aim to understand how left-handers’ spatial attention networks are organised differently in the brain to right-handers’,” says Corinne. “This could explain why left- handers are less susceptible to spatial biases with drowsiness and, by extension, chronic spatial neglect following injury.” Being able to predict who is more likely to develop spatial neglect following stroke could lead to better therapies for those who need themmost. Corinne described Neurological Foundation funding as crucial. “This work would not have been possible without your support.” While Massey University researcher Corinne Bareham-Waldock was working on her PhD, she discovered something fascinating: when healthy right-handed people start to feel drowsy, they temporarily lose awareness of the left side of their surroundings.