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Clinical Trial
. 2024 Jul 3;19(1):250.
doi: 10.1186/s13023-024-03263-1.

Extent of magnitude representation deficit and relationship with arithmetic skills in children with 22q11.2DS

Emilie Favre  1 , Margot Piveteau  2 , Marie-Noelle Babinet  3 , Caroline Demily  4
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Extent of magnitude representation deficit and relationship with arithmetic skills in children with 22q11.2DS

Emilie Favre et al. Orphanet J Rare Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Previous studies have produced conflicting results concerning the extent of magnitude representation deficit and its relationship with arithmetic achievement in children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More specifically, it remains unclear whether deficits are restricted to visuospatial content or are more general and whether they could explain arithmetical impairment.

Methods: Fifteen 5- to 12-year-old children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome and 23 age-matched healthy controls performed a non-symbolic magnitude comparison task. Depending on the trial, participants had to compare stimuli with high or low visuospatial load (visuospatial stimuli or temporal sequence of visual stimuli). The participants also completed a battery of arithmetic skills (ZAREKI-R) and a battery of global cognitive functioning (WISC-V or WPPSI-IV), from which working memory and visuospatial indices were derived.

Results: Children with 22q11.2DS responded as fast as healthy controls did but received fewer correct responses, irrespective of visuospatial load. In addition, their performance in the non-symbolic magnitude comparison task did not correlate with the ZAREKI total score, while the working memory index did.

Conclusion: Children with 22q11.2DS might suffer from a global magnitude representation deficit rather than a specific deficit due to visuospatial load. However, this deficit alone does not seem to be related to arithmetic achievement. Working memory might be a better concern of interest in favoring arithmetic skills in patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome.

Trial registration: Clinicaltrials, NCT04373226 . Registered 16 September 2020.

Keywords: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome; Arithmetical skills; Magnitude comparison task; Working memory.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: EF, MP, MNB and CD report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Experimental procedure for the magnitude comparison task. After an intertrial delay, the left- and right-sided stimuli were successively displayed. The children had to choose the figure who had the most candies by touching the right or left side of the screen. The participants were instructed to wait for the response screen with “?” before touching the screen. The participants were encouraged to respond as quickly and correctly as possible. A In the V-SPA condition, the stimuli used were visuospatial patterns of candies of varying sizes lasting for 700 ms. B In the V-TEMP condition, stimuli were composed of a set of single candies that popped up during 50 to 150 ms. Each stimulus lasted for 3000 ms
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Performance of participants in non-symbolic magnitude comparison tasks. The mean reaction times (RTs) are presented on the left, and the rates of correct responses (CRs) are presented on the right. V-SPA = magnitude comparison task with visuospatial stimuli; V-TEMP = magnitude comparison task with sequence of visual stimuli; CTRL = healthy children; 22q11.2DS = children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. * = p < 0.001 considering age as a covariate
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