Deficits in or Preservation of Basic Number Processing in Parkinson's Disease? A Registered Report

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD) have a huge impact on patients, caregivers, and the health care system. Until now, diagnosis of mild cognitive impairments in PD has been established based on domain-general functions such as executive functions, attention, or working memory. However, specific numerical deficits observed in clinical practice have not yet been systematically investigated. PD-immanent deterioration of domain-general functions and domain-specific numerical areas suggests mechanisms of both primary and secondary dyscalculia. The current study systematically investigated basic number processing performance in PD patients for the first time, targeting domain-specific cognitive representations of numerosity and the influence of domain-general factors. The overall sample consisted of patients with a diagnosis of PD, according to consensus guidelines, and healthy controls. PD patients were stratified into patients with normal cognition (PD-NC) or mild cognitive impairment (level I-PD-MCI based on cognitive screening). Basic number processing was assessed using transcoding, number line estimation, and (non-) symbolic number magnitude comparison tasks. Discriminant analysis was employed to assess whether basic number processing tasks can differentiate between a healthy control group and both PD groups. All participants were subjected to a comprehensive numerical and a neuropsychological test battery, as well as sociodemographic and clinical measures. Results indicate a profile of preserved (verbal representation) and impaired (magnitude representation, place × value activation) function in PD-MCI, hinting at basal ganglia dysfunction affecting numerical cognition in PD. Numerical deficits could not be explained by domain-general cognitive impairments, so that future research needs to incorporate domain-specific tasks of sufficient difficulty.