Dataset Information

Right-hemisphere (spatial?) acalculia and the influence of neglect.

ABSTRACT: The present study aimed at exploring basic number and calculation abilities in right-hemisphere damaged patients (RHD), focusing primarily on one-digit orally presented tasks, which do not require explicit visuo-spatial abilities. Twenty-four non mentally-deteriorated RHD patients [12 with clinical neglect (RHDN+), 12 without clinical neglect (RHDN-)], and 12 healthy controls were included in the study. Participants were administered an ad hoc numerical battery assessing abilities such as counting, number magnitude comparison, writing and reading Arabic numerals and mental calculation, among others. Significant differences emerged among healthy controls and both the RHDN+ group and the RHDN- group, suggesting that the mathematical impairment of RHD patients does not necessarily correspond to the presence of left-neglect. A detailed analysis of the sub-tests of the battery evidenced expected differences among RHDN+ patients, RHDN- patients, and controls in writing and reading Arabic numerals. Crucially, differences between RHDN+ patients and controls were also found in tasks such as mental subtraction and mental multiplication, which do not require written visuo-spatial abilities. The present findings thus suggest that unilateral right hemisphere lesions may produce specific representational deficits that affect simple mental calculation, and not only the spatial arrangement of multi-digit written numbers as previously thought.

SUBMITTER: Benavides-Varela S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4138500 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Right-hemisphere (spatial?) acalculia and the influence of neglect.

Benavides-Varela Silvia S Pitteri Marco M Priftis Konstantinos K Passarini Laura L Meneghello Francesca F Semenza Carlo C

Frontiers in human neuroscience 20140820

The present study aimed at exploring basic number and calculation abilities in right-hemisphere damaged patients (RHD), focusing primarily on one-digit orally presented tasks, which do not require explicit visuo-spatial abilities. Twenty-four non mentally-deteriorated RHD patients [12 with clinical neglect (RHDN+), 12 without clinical neglect (RHDN-)], and 12 healthy controls were included in the study. Participants were administered an ad hoc numerical battery assessing abilities such as counti ...[more]

PMID: 25191257

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Project description:The neural mechanisms underlying recovery of language after left hemisphere stroke remain elusive. Although older evidence suggested that right hemisphere language homologues compensate for damage in left hemisphere language areas, the current prevailing theory suggests that right hemisphere engagement is ineffective or even maladaptive. Using a novel combination of support vector regression-based lesion-symptom mapping and voxel-based morphometry, we aimed to determine whether local grey matter volume in the right hemisphere independently contributes to aphasia outcomes after chronic left hemisphere stroke. Thirty-two left hemisphere stroke survivors with aphasia underwent language assessment with the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised and tests of other cognitive domains. High-resolution T1-weighted images were obtained in aphasia patients and 30 demographically matched healthy controls. Support vector regression-based multivariate lesion-symptom mapping was used to identify critical language areas in the left hemisphere and then to quantify each stroke survivor's lesion burden in these areas. After controlling for these direct effects of the stroke on language, voxel-based morphometry was then used to determine whether local grey matter volumes in the right hemisphere explained additional variance in language outcomes. In brain areas in which grey matter volumes related to language outcomes, we then compared grey matter volumes in patients and healthy controls to assess post-stroke plasticity. Lesion-symptom mapping showed that specific left hemisphere regions related to different language abilities. After controlling for lesion burden in these areas, lesion size, and demographic factors, grey matter volumes in parts of the right temporoparietal cortex positively related to spontaneous speech, naming, and repetition scores. Examining whether domain general cognitive functions might explain these relationships, partial correlations demonstrated that grey matter volumes in these clusters related to verbal working memory capacity, but not other cognitive functions. Further, grey matter volumes in these areas were greater in stroke survivors than healthy control subjects. To confirm this result, 10 chronic left hemisphere stroke survivors with no history of aphasia were identified. Grey matter volumes in right temporoparietal clusters were greater in stroke survivors with aphasia compared to those without history of aphasia. These findings suggest that the grey matter structure of right hemisphere posterior dorsal stream language homologues independently contributes to language production abilities in chronic left hemisphere stroke, and that these areas may undergo hypertrophy after a stroke causing aphasia.

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Right-hemisphere (spatial?) acalculia and the influence of neglect.

Publications

Right-hemisphere (spatial?) acalculia and the influence of neglect.

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