Dyscalculia in Early Adulthood: Implications for Numerical Activities of Daily Living.

Numerical abilities are fundamental in our society. As a consequence, poor numerical skills might have a great impact on daily living. This study analyzes the extent to which the numerical deficit observed in young adults with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) impacts their activities of everyday life. For this purpose, 26 adults with DD and 26 healthy controls completed the NADL, a standardized battery that assesses numerical skills in both formal and informal contexts. The results showed that adults with DD had poorer arithmetical skills in both formal and informal settings. In particular, adults with DD presented difficulties in time and measure estimation as well as money usage in real-world numerical tasks. In contrast, everyday tasks regarding distance estimation were preserved. In addition, the assessment revealed that adults with DD were aware of their numerical difficulties, which were often related to emotional problems and negatively impacted their academic and occupational decisions. Our study highlights the need to design innovative interventions and age-appropriate training for adults with DD to support their numerical skills as well as their social and emotional well-being.

A 9-year neuropsychological report of a patient with LGI1-associated limbic encephalitis.

Introduction: Anti-leucine-rich glioma-inactivated 1 limbic encephalitis (LGI1-LE) is an autoimmune disorder associated with antibodies to voltage-gated potassium channels (VGKC). It is a non-paraneoplastic and partially reversible encephalitis that can be diagnosed via serological testing. Untreated LGI1-LE can be associated with neurocognitive as well as neuropsychiatric sequelae. Here we report the neuropsychological and clinical profile of a patient with LGI1-LE following three different treatment approaches: plasmapheresis (PA), intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), and corticosteroids (CO). Method: We investigated our patient with 10 neuropsychological evaluations obtained over a 9-year follow-up period. Multiple MRI scans, EEG recordings, neurological examinations, and serum tests were also obtained. Results: The neurocognitive profile of our patient was characterized by long-term memory impairment (verbal and visual-spatial), and deficits in aspects of executive functioning and language. Neuropsychiatric symptoms of depression and anxiety were noted intermittently. Conclusions: Non-specific treatment prior to diagnosis had marginal effects on neurocognitive profile, neuropsychiatric symptoms, or control of epileptic seizure. In contrast, specific treatments for LGI1-LE following diagnosis resulted in neurocognitive improvement and epileptic control. Among the three treatments, IVIG and CO had the most beneficial impact on neurocognitive status, likely due to the continuity of administration.

Atypical non-progressive semantic impairment following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in a patient with Waldenström's macroglobulinemia: A case report.

OBJECTIVE: A case report of a 74-year-old male presenting with an atypical multimodal semantic impairment. The patient was diagnosed with Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) for which he received allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) due to disease progression. Following BMT, he developed a sudden onset of semantic difficulties that have remained unchanged for eight years. No other cognitive functions have been affected and his activities of daily living remain fully preserved. METHOD: The patient was assessed at our neuropsychology unit with six neuropsychological evaluations over an 8-years follow-up period following BMT. Additional semantic tests were administered during the last three evaluations. Four MRI scans (at age 62, 66, 69 and 74) and 18F-FDG PET (at age 74) were obtained. RESULTS: The patient presents a multimodal semantic impairment, including naming impairment, visual agnosia, prosopoanomia, associative prosopagnosia, topographical disorientation and impaired retrograde memory for public events. MRI scans and 18F-FDG PET revealed bilateral symmetrical atrophy (temporal > frontal) and inferior bilateral temporal lobe hypometabolism, respectively. Neuroradiological examination was unremarkable prior to BMT. CONCLUSION: Clinical diagnosis remains a challenge given the focal and stable nature of his deficits. We hypothesize that the BMT procedure might have resulted in the temporal lobe damage and subsequent semantic impairment. We recommend obtaining a thorough neuropsychological evaluation of patients who receive allogenic BMT, both prior to and following transplant.

Silent reading fluency: Implications for the assessment of adults with developmental dyslexia.

INTRODUCTION: Understanding silent reading fluency (SRF) is of a paramount importance, given that silent reading is the principal manner of reading for capable readers. But the assessment of SRF is not commonly useful for identifying students with reading difficulties and monitoring their progress. The paper presents the SRF scores of adults with dyslexia compared to SRF scores of skilled readers and discusses the power of the SRF measure in identifying adults with specific learning disorders with impairment in reading. METHOD: Participants recruited were 68 dyslexic and age-matched skilled adult readers (18-48 years old). Among them, 24 were skilled readers with a university degree (GRS), 22 were skilled readers with a high school diploma (DSR), and 22 participants had been diagnosed with dyslexia (DR). We used a standardized oral reading fluency (ORF) test and an original SRF task to measure the reading fluency. RESULTS: All participants increased their reading fluency in silent mode (p < .001). Nonetheless, the average speed of the oral reading was 7.19 syllables per second (syl/s) for the GSR group, 7.11 syl/s for the DSR group, and 4.95 syl/s for the DR group. The average speed of the silent reading was 11.62 syl/s and 10.75 syl/s for GSR and DSR, respectively, and 6.15 syl/s for DR. The reading fluency differential (Δf) between ORF and SRF was significantly different among the dyslexic participants and the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our results strongly suggest that dyslexic readers are less capable of significantly improve their reading speed when they read silently. Thus SRF could be considered a suitable parameter for identifying older students and adults with impairment in reading. A broader investigation of the issues surrounding silent reading is needed.