title: Estimating frontal and parietal involvement in cognitive estimation: a study of focal neurodegenerative diseases.
abstract: We often estimate an unknown value based on available relevant information, a process known as cognitive estimation. In this study, we assess the cognitive and neuroanatomic basis for quantitative estimation by examining deficits in patients with focal neurodegenerative disease in frontal and parietal cortex. Executive function and number knowledge are key components in cognitive estimation. Prefrontal cortex has been implicated in multilevel reasoning and planning processes, and parietal cortex has been associated with number knowledge required for such estimations. We administered the Biber cognitive estimation test (BCET) to assess cognitive estimation in 22 patients with prefrontal disease due to behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), to 17 patients with parietal disease due to corticobasal syndrome (CBS) or posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) and 11 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Both bvFTD and CBS/PCA patients had significantly more difficulty with cognitive estimation than controls. MCI were not impaired on BCET relative to controls. Regression analyses related BCET performance to gray matter atrophy in right lateral prefrontal and orbital frontal cortices in bvFTD, and to atrophy in right inferior parietal cortex, right insula, and fusiform cortices in CBS/PCA. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a frontal-parietal network plays a crucial role in cognitive estimation.
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Teagan A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Bisbing
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Christopher A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Olm
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Corey T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: McMillan
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Katya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rascovsky
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baehr
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Kylie
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ternes
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Irwin
authors.affiliation: Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA.
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grossman
keywords: behavioral variant frontotemporal degeneration; cognitive estimation; corticobasal syndrome; parietal cortices; posterior cortical atrophy; prefrontal cortices