Cerebral Pathways for Calculation: Double Dissociation between Rote Verbal and Quantitative Knowledge of Arithmetic

doi:10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70002-9

Cortex

Volume 33, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 219-250

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0010-9452(08)70002-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

We describe two acalculic patients, one with a left subcortical lesion and the other with a right inferior parietal lesion and Gerstmann's syndrome. Both suffered from “pure anarithmetia”: they could read arabic numerals and write them to dictation, but experienced a pronounced calculation deficit. On closer analysis, however, distinct deficits were found. The subcortical case suffered from a selective deficit of rote verbal knowledge, including but not limited to arithmetic tables, while her semantic knowledge of numerical quantities was intact. Conversely the inferior parietal case suffered from a category-specific impairment of quantitative numerical knowledge, particularly salient in subtraction and number bissection tasks, with preserved knowledge of rote arithmetic facts. This double dissociation suggests that numerical knowledge is processed in different formats within distinct cerebral pathways. We suggest that a left subcortical network contributes to the storage and retrieval of rote verbal arithmetic facts, while a bilateral inferior parietal network is dedicated to the mental manipulation of numerical quantities.

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Cerebral Pathways for Calculation: Double Dissociation between Rote Verbal and Quantitative Knowledge of Arithmetic

Abstract

Cognition

Cognition

Brain and Language

Brain and Cognition

Cognition

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

Brain and Cognition

Cortex

Brain and Cognition

Cognition

Neuropsychologia

Neuropsychologia

NeuroImage

Cortex

Parallel organization of functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex

Annual Review of Neuroscience

Mental addition: A test of three verification models

Memory and Cognition

The fiction of the Gerstmann syndrome

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

Mathematical disability and the Gerstmann syndrome

Gerstmann's syndrome

Archives of Neurology

Dissociations of calculation processes

Toward a multiroute model of number processing: impaired number transcoding with preserved calculation skills

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Number processing in pure alexia: the effect of hemispheric asymmetries and task demands

NeuroCase

Cerebral networks for number processing: Evidence from a case of posterior callosal lesion

NeuroCase

Number words and number non-words: A case of deep dyslexia extending to arabic numerals

Brain

Acalculia following a dominant-hemisphere subcortical infarct

Archives of Neurology