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. 2024 May 23.
doi: 10.1007/s10072-024-07610-9. Online ahead of print.

Financial and numerical abilities: patterns of dissociation in neurological and psychiatric diseases

Francesca Burgio  1 , Laura Danesin  2 , Alexandra Wennberg  3 , Elisabetta Tonini  4 , Valentina Galetto  5 , Silvia Sivieri  6 , Andreina Giustiniani  1   7 , Katie Palmer  8 , Francesca Meneghello  9 , Gianni Sorarù  10 , Marina Zettin  11   12 , Giorgio Arcara  1 , Silvia Benavides-Varela  10   13 , Carlo Semenza  10
Affiliations

Financial and numerical abilities: patterns of dissociation in neurological and psychiatric diseases

Francesca Burgio et al. Neurol Sci. .

Abstract

The present work investigates whether financial abilities can be associated with numerical abilities and with general cognitive abilities. We compared performance on numerical and financial tests, and on tests routinely used to measure general cognitive performance, in healthy controls and in a group of people with heterogeneous pathological conditions including mild cognitive impairment, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, and schizophrenia. Patients showed lower performances in both numerical and financial abilities compared to controls. Numerical and financial skills were positively correlated in both groups, but they correlated poorly with measures of general cognitive functioning. Crucially, only basic financial tasks -such as counting currencies- but not advanced ones -like financial judgments- were associated with numerical or general cognitive functioning in logistic regression analyses. Conversely, advanced financial abilities, but not basic ones, were associated with abstract reasoning. At a qualitative analysis, we found that deficits in numerical and financial abilities might double dissociate. Similarly, we observed double dissociations between difficulties in financial abilities and cognitive deficits. In conclusion, financial abilities may be independent of numerical skills, and financial deficits are not always related to the presence of cognitive difficulties. These findings are important for both clinical and legal practice.

Keywords: Financial abilities; Neurological disorders; Neuropsychological assessment; Numerical abilities; Psychiatric diseases.

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