Schedule of Events | Symposia

Precise numeracy, but not approximation, associated with language across targeted regions of interest

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Erin Duricy¹ (etd17@pitt.edu), Corrine Durisko¹, Julie A. Fiez¹; ¹University of Pittsburgh

Numeracy, a critical skill at the foundation of mathematical processing, can be divided into two subcategories of numerical processing ability: approximate (quantity estimation) and precise numeracy (exact quantity). Loss of numeracy is commonly comorbid with aphasia following stroke, yet little is known about the neural basis of the relationship. Here, we used a targeted region-of-interest (ROI) analysis to investigate the relationship between approximate and precise numeracy with language ability at three ROIs: left intraparietal sulcus (IPS), angular gyrus (AG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). We predicted that damage to left IPS would impact performance on both approximate and precise measures independent of language abilities, while damage to the left AG and IFG would selectively impact performance on precise numeracy measures and co-vary with aphasia severity. In a sample of N=104 left hemisphere chronic stroke survivors (59M/45F, mean age 61.59 ± 12), we performed multiple regression analyses for approximate and precise numeracy performance as a function of percent ROI overlap for each ROI, with aphasia severity as a covariate. Our results support the link between precise numeracy and aphasia severity specifically, with a significant prediction effect for aphasia quotient across all precise numeracy models (p < .0001) and no significant association with approximate numeracy (p’s > .05). However, we did not find significant association of ROI overlap and numeracy performance for any region (p’s > .05). Overall, these findings support distinct relationships between language and precise versus approximate numeracy but highlight the need for a future whole-brain investigation beyond traditional ROIs.

Topic Area: LANGUAGE: Other