Intraoperative functional mapping of calculation in parietal surgery. New insights and clinical implications

Parietal areas play a crucial role in calculation processing. The purpose of this study is to report our experience in the assessment of calculation processing during awake surgery in parietal areas, focusing on clinical implications and new insights provided by this approach.

We retrospectively reviewed clinical and surgical data of 13 patients who underwent parietal surgery with calculation mapping. Cortical and sub-cortical areas (in 13 and five patients, respectively) involved in single-digit multiplications and additions were identified using bipolar electro-stimulation.

Cortical stimulation data showed that the inferior parietal lobule and the intraparietal sulcus were specifically related to calculation in all cases, regardless of the side (100% of cases, in both sides). Conversely, the superior parietal lobule was inconstantly involved in calculation processing (40% of cases in the left and 75% in the right side), whereas the somatosensory area was never involved. Sub-cortical stimulation was able to detect functional areas for calculation in all patients: in 90% of cases the sub-cortical sites positive for calculation were in close anatomical connection with the cortical sites mapping for the same function. The intraoperative preservation (-or damaging-) of functional sites correlated with the absence (- or occurrence-) of post-operative calculation processing impairment.

Our findings support the specificity of the reported technique in the intraoperative identification of sites functional for calculation. Our data show the bilateral involvement of parietal cortex, especially of the inferior lobule, in calculation processing. Furthermore, our study suggests the existence of a sub-cortical pathway specific for calculation, whose better understanding might be crucial for the clinical outcome of patients.