UPenn researchers recently got published a report of two cases of acalculia in autopsy-confirmed CBD. Acalculia is an impairment in the ability to calculate or performing simple mathematical tasks, such as adding or subtracting.
I don’t consider this particularly new information but the authors say that “While the original case descriptions mentioned acalculia, few studies have investigated this, and reports of acalculia in autopsy-proven CBD are very rare. We detail 2 autopsy-defined CBD cases with acalculia to emphasize that CBD compromises cognitive functioning due to disease that includes parietal cortex.”
This paragraph from the Discussion section is interesting: “In 15 patients with autopsy-proven CBD that included the 2 cases detailed here, acalculia was noted in 28.6%, although this was thought to be an underestimation since calculations were not often examined. … Patients with CBS have significant impairments estimating and comparing quantities, performing calculations with small numerosities, and using quantity knowledge to support word meaning. … MRI in CBS regularly shows parietal atrophy, including areas associated with number knowledge.”
I’ve copied the citation below.
Robin
Neurology. 2011 Feb 15;76(7 Suppl 2):S61-3.
Acalculia in autopsy-proven corticobasal degeneration.
Pantelyat A, Dreyfuss M, Moore P, Gross R, Schuck T, Irwin D, Trojanowski J, Grossman M.
Department of Neurology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.