Ability of aphasic individuals to perform numerical processing and calculation tasks

Abstract

Objective: To compare performance on EC301 battery calculation task between aphasic subjects and normal controls of the same sex, age, and education. Method: Thirty-two aphasic patients who had suffered a single left hemisphere stroke were evaluated. Forty-four healthy volunteers were also selected. All subjects underwent a comprehensive arithmetic battery to assess their numerical and calculation skills. Performances on numerical processing and calculation tasks were then analyzed. Results: Aphasic individuals showed changes in their ability to perform numerical processing and calculation tasks that were not observed in the healthy population. Conclusion: Compared with healthy subjects of the same age and education level, individuals with aphasia had difficulty performing various tasks that involved numerical processing and calculation.Keywords: aphasia, dyscalculia, stroke. RESUMO Objetivo:Comparar o desempenho em tarefas de cálculo através da bateria EC301 entre sujeitos afásicos e indivíduos normais pareando as variáveis sexo, idade e educação. Método: Foram avaliados 32 pacientes afásicos que sofreram lesão em hemisfério esquerdo único, concomitantemente com quarenta e quatro voluntários saudáveis. Todos foram submetidos a uma bateria de aritmética abrangente para avaliar habilidades numérica e de cálculo. Resultados: Os indivíduos afásicos apresentaram alterações no processamento numérico e tarefas de cálculo que não foram observadas na população saudável. Conclusão: Pacientes afásicos apresentam dificuldades para executar tarefas que envolvem processamento numérico e de cálculo em comparação com indivíduos saudáveis da mesma idade e escolaridade.Palavras-chave: afasia, discalculia, acidente vascular encefálico.Calculation ability represents an extremely complex cognitive process, which requires multifactorial processes, including verbal, spatial, memory, and executive functions 1,2 . The literature suggests that mathematical calculation performance can be damaged in cases of dementia, dysfunction, and/or brain injury 3,4 and that such patients have difficulties with verbal, spatial, memory, and executive function abilities [5][6][7][8][9][10] .Aphasic patients are more likely to exhibit mathematical difficulties, particularly in tests involving numerical transcoding, Arabic spelling, and oral Arabic 3,5,11 . The pattern of errors for a large sample of aphasic patients was analyzed, and the most severe impairment in calculation ability was found in global aphasics. Patients with Broca's and Wernicke's aphasias performed similarly in quantitative terms, while patients with anomic aphasia exhibited fewer difficulties in making calculations 12 . Many observed numerical processing problems may also arise from other, nonlinguistic impairments frequently found in left hemispheric patients, including attentional deficits, short-term memory problems, or difficulties in monitoring complex sequences.Considering the numerical and calculation skills acquired throughout life, Leonhard 13 hypothesized the existe...

Association between Aphasia and Acalculia: Analytical Cross-Sectional Study

“…We observed that aphasic individuals showed changes in numerical processing and calculation tasks that were not observed in the healthy population. 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.…”

Language impairment in the moderate stage of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease

“…The low performance of the patients in the serial writing task, in which patients should write alphabet and number sequences from 1 to 21, may have been due to failure in lexical access to the information in question. This difficulty might be attributable to a lexical-semantic disorder that also underlies language impairments and their relationships with numerical processing 31 . Alternatively, it might be attributable to memory deficit, where such that recall of the items in sequence is necessary in order to subsequently reproduce them.…”