Objective: To assess the frequency, predictors, and affected cognitive representations of arithmetic errors in financial contexts in Parkinson’s Disease (PD), patients with normal cognition (PD-NC) and mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) were examined.

Background: PD comprises motor and non-motor symptoms, with the latter including cognitive impairment. Research on dyscalculia in PD is scarce, despite the importance of arithmetic for daily functioning and the overlap of PD neurodegeneration with neuronal structures of arithmetic.

Method: Deficits in two simple financial-arithmetic tasks administered within the Clinical Dementia Rating were assessed in a sample of 100 PD patients. Patients were classified as PD-NC or PD-MCI according to Level I consensus criteria, and assessed using a neuropsychological test battery, neurological motor examination, and sociodemographic and clinical questionnaires.

Results: Overall, 18% of PD patients committed financial-arithmetic error(s). Financial-arithmetic errors were mainly attributed to the categories place  value processing, magnitude processing, and arithmetic procedures. Erroneous were more often female (p < .001), had longer disease duration (p = .02) and lower scores in the Beck Depression Inventory II (p = .03). When correcting for these covariates in a logistic regression, the cognitive factors attention (p = .037) and visuo-spatial/ constructional skills (p = .021) predicted occurrence of financial-arithmetic errors. Activities of daily living function was not associated to the occurrence of financial-arithmetic errors.

Conclusion: Financial-arithmetic errors should not be neglected in non-demented PD patients. These patients with financial-arithmetic errors showed a special demographic and cognitive profile. Especially impaired place  value processing, magnitude processing, and use of arithmetic procedures might characterize dyscalculia in PD. Because of the low number of items, these promising pilot data should be followed up by more systematic numerical and arithmetic investigations.

References: This data will be published as: Loenneker, H.D., Becker, S., Nussbaum, S., Nuerk, H.-C.*, & Liepelt-Scarfone, I.* (in press). Arithmetic Errors in Financial Contexts in Parkinson’s Disease. Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.

« Back to MDS Virtual Congress 2021

MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/sociodemographic-cognitive-and-clinical-factors-explaining-financial-arithmetic-errors-in-parkinsons-disease/