Performance of a Brazilian population in the EC 301 calculation and number processing battery: a pilot study

Abstract

-Background: From a neuropsychological point of view calculation is a very complex function. A simple arithmetic operation demands many neurocognitive mechanisms that involve verbal, spatial and graphical processing, memory and attention. Objective: To verify the calculation and number processing of healthy subjects and the effect of gender, age and schooling on their performance. Method: Forty-four normal subjects without complaints or neurological changes were evaluated. Results: The educational level was significantly linked to performance in the majority of tests of the EC 301 battery, whereas no differences were noted regarding age and gender. Conclusion: Evaluation of the data of the healthy population shown in this study indicated that educational level can affect calculation and number processing, It is possible to note that battery EC 301 demonstrated sensitivity for appraisal of these abilities and therefore can be employed for clinical assessment in calculation and number disorders.KEy words: mathematics, population characteristics, calculation ability, numerical knowledge, acalculia. desempenho da população brasileira no processamento numérico e de cálculo através da bateria ec 301: estudo piloto resumo -Introdução: o cálculo do ponto de vista neuropsicológico é uma função muito complexa. Em uma simples operação aritmética estão envolvidos diversos processos neurocognitivos que envolvem os processamentos verbais, espaciais, gráficos, atenção e memória. Objetivo: Este estudo teve por objetivo verificar o desempenho de indivíduos saudáveis, no processamento numérico e de cálculo, através da bateria EC 301 e verificar as interferências do sexo, da idade e da escolaridade no desempenho destes indivíduos. Método: Foram avaliados 44 sujeitos normais sem queixas e/ou alterações neurológicas. Resultados: o nível educacional mostrou-se fortemente relacionado ao desempenho obtido na maioria das provas da bateria EC 301, enquanto em relação ao sexo e idade não foram encontradas diferenças. Conclusão: os dados encontrados na população avaliada neste estudo mostraram que o nível educacional pode influenciar o desempenho do processamento numérico e de cálculo, sendo possível observar que a bateria EC 301 mostrou-se sensível para avaliar estas habilidades, podendo assim ser utilizada na avaliação clínica dos distúrbios numéricos e de cálculo. The ability to calculate is an extremely complex cognitive procedure. It consists of multifactorial processes, including verbal and spatial abilities, memory and executive functions 1 . realization of mathematical calculations can be impaired in cases of cerebral dysfunction and/or injuries 2-6 as well as in dementias 7,8 . The loss of the ability to perform calculation tasks resulting from a cerebral pathology is known as acalculia or acquired dyscalculia.

The influence of age, gender and education on the performance of healthy individuals on a battery for assessing limb apraxia

“…Demographic variables such as gender, age, and education can influence the performance of individuals on different neuropsychological tests. 5 - 8 Considering this, few studies have been carried out to specifically examine the influence of demographic variables on praxis skills, although there is recent research related to limb apraxia assessment. 9 , 10 Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of individuals without neurological injury on a limb apraxia battery and to determine the influence of gender, age, and education on the assessed praxis skills.…”

Aplicação do teste M1-Alpha em sujeitos normais com baixa escolaridade: estudo piloto

“…Although two studies have been carried out, one involving a normal population (6) and the other an aphasic population (5) , a specific study in a population with low educational level was lacking. Schooling influences all cognitive functions (11,12) including language (4,13,14) , and the M1-Alpha comprises stimuli which can be easily processed by populations with low educational level (15,16) , largely owing to its visuallybased stimuli (17,18) . Given that individual and sociocultural factors can influence performance on language-based tasks, the aim of this study was to determine the performance of normal individuals with low educational level on the M1-Alpha test in order to obtain parameters for use in assessing aphasic patients with similarly low level of education.…”

Association between Aphasia and Acalculia: Analytical Cross-Sectional Study

“…Although the groups were different according to age and gender, we do not believe that this difference interfered with the results, since there were no elderly subjects in our sample and there is no evidence of cognitive changes in adults [20]. As far as gender is concerned, there is a report of a little advantage of males [4] but in most studies, including one that was done with the EC 301 battery, no statistically significant difference between the performance of males and females was found [21] [22], Table 1.…”