title: Numeracy skills in patients with degenerative disorders and focal brain lesions: a neuropsychological investigation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the numerical profile of patients with acquired brain disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated numeracy skills in 76 participants--40 healthy controls and 36 patients with neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer dementia, frontotemporal dementia, semantic dementia, progressive aphasia) and with focal brain lesions affecting parietal, frontal, and temporal areas as in herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE). All patients were tested with the same comprehensive battery of paper-and-pencil and computerized tasks assessing numerical abilities and calculation. Degenerative and HSE patients also performed nonnumerical semantic tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results, based on nonparametric group statistics as well as on the analysis of individual patients, and all highly significant, show that: (a) all patients, including those with parietal lesions--a key brain area for numeracy processing--had intact processing of number quantity; (b) patients with impaired semantic knowledge had much better preserved numerical knowledge; and (c) most patients showed impaired calculation skills, with the exception of most semantic dementia and HSE patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results allow us, for the first time, to characterize the numeracy skills in patients with a variety of neurological conditions and to suggest that the pattern of numerical performance can vary considerably across different neurological populations. Moreover, the selective sparing of calculation skills in most semantic dementia and HSE suggest that numerical abilities are an independent component of the semantic system. Finally, our data suggest that, besides the parietal areas, other brain regions might be critical to the understanding and processing of numerical concepts.
authors: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, UK. m.cappelletti@ucl.ac.uk
authors: Marinella
authors: M
authors: Cappelletti
authors: Brian
authors: B
authors: Butterworth
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Kopelman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001037:Aphasia / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D020803:Encephalitis, Herpes Simplex / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D057180:Frontotemporal Dementia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D057174:Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D008875:Middle Aged; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012660:Semantics; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology