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

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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.

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Data availability

Data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. Data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Funding

This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (GR-2018-12367927).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IRCCS San Camillo Hospital, via Alberoni 70, 30126, Venice, Italy

    Francesca Burgio, Laura Danesin, Andreina Giustiniani & Giorgio Arcara

  2. Unit of Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Alexandra Wennberg

  3. Department of Humanities and Life Sciences, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Pavia, Italy

    Elisabetta Tonini

  4. Service de Neurologie Hospitalier Universitaire Caremeau, Nimes, France

    Valentina Galetto

  5. Centro Salute Mentale ASUFC, Udine, Italy

    Silvia Sivieri

  6. Department of Clinical Geriatrics, NVS, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Katie Palmer

  7. Unità Operativa Complessa Cure Primarie Distretto 3 Mirano-Dolo, Aulss 3 Serenissima, Venice, Italy

    Francesca Meneghello

  8. Department of Neuroscience (Padova Neuroscience Center), University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Gianni Sorarù, Silvia Benavides-Varela & Carlo Semenza

  9. Centro Puzzle, Turin, Italy

    Marina Zettin

  10. Department of Psychology, University of Torino, Turin, Italy

    Marina Zettin

  11. Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padova, Padua, Italy

    Silvia Benavides-Varela

  12. IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo, Messina, Italy

    Andreina Giustiniani

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

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Elisabetta Tonini, Valentina Galetto, Silvia Sivieri. The analyses were performed by Laura Danesin and Alexandra Wennberg. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Francesca Burgio. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura Danesin.

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Burgio, F., Danesin, L., Wennberg, A. et al. Financial and numerical abilities: patterns of dissociation in neurological and psychiatric diseases. Neurol Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-024-07610-9

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