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Poster Session A: Tuesday, August 12, 1:30 – 4:30 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Cognitive Underpinnings of Dyscalculia: Insights from Behavioral Modeling

Maike Renkert¹, Gilles de Hollander¹, Caroline Biegel, Karin Kucian, Christian Ruff¹; ¹University of Zurich

Presenter: Maike Renkert

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a learning disorder characterized by impairments in numerical and mathematical cognition. Despite its high prevalence and mental health impact, its cognitive origins and everyday life implications remain poorly understood. Here we test competing theories about cognitive impairments giving rise to DD using behavioral and neural data, positing either specific deficits in number perception or impaired working memory of magnitudes. We recruited 33 adolescents with DD and 33 neurotypical controls to complete a numerical magnitude comparison task during fMRI. Bayesian perceptual choice modeling revealed that individuals with DD showed unchanged perception simple numerosity stimuli, but poorer working memory when having to compare sequentially presented numerical magnitudes. Our data characterize numerical cognition deficits in DD and support (visio-spatial) working-memory accounts of the underlying cognitive impairments.

Topic Area: Memory, Spatial Cognition & Skill Learning

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF