Self-reported acalculia as a presenting symptom of non-dominant right parietal glioblastoma multiforme
Year: 2012
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Acalculia, the acquired inability to perform simple mathematical operations, is classically associated with lesions to the left angular and supramarginal gyri. In this case report, we present a pair of right-handed patients whose presenting complaint was acalculia in the absence of finger agnosia, agraphia, or language deficit. Both patients had WHO grade IV glioblastoma multiforme tumors in the right superior parieto-occipital cortex. We hypothesize that the acalculia with abnormal tumor locale may be related to the way that these two individuals process mathematical problems. Both were extremely highly functioning - one being a university professor and the other a CEO of a financial institution. It is known that for many people simple mathematical operations are a function primarily of internal auditory recital and working memory, and in others, equations obey a type of sentence structure linked to the same cognitive mechanisms as writing. However, some individuals form internal spatial/structural diagrams for simple equations and solve mathematical solutions by spatial manipulation. We hypothesize that the high-functioning patients in our report shared a common mechanism for solving simple arithmetic problems, involving the spatial manipulation of mathematical objects in an internal space that is represented and manipulated in non-dominant right parietal cortex - and therefore their mathematical ability was disrupted by the invasion of tumor into this region and associated sequelae (tissue invasion, edema, mass effect).
Source: Cureus
DOI: 10.7759/cureus.44
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2161244925