Medical News Today has an interesting little article on a research study that is claiming to have discovered the roots of Dyscalculia. By artificially stimulating right parietal lobe dysfunction in a normal population they were able to replicate the testing results of clients with the disorder.
Now I would not assume that this means it can be 100% confirmed that this is the causal area of the disorder. I can blindfold a person and replicate the results of being born blind but that does not mean putting things in front of your eyes is the cause of blindness. However, it is a promising result none the less and could lead to some positive results.
They article notes that it could lead to neural tissue based diagnostic procedures. I assume they mean things like MRI's. I think it is highly unlikely we could afford to use such high end equipment to diagnose Dyscalculia, but this same type of brain study research is what has lead to advanced psychometric measures for identifying executive functioning (great frontal lobe tools like Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System) and earlier identification of potential Alzheimer's (unique lobe specific tests like the Alzheimer's Quick Test).
You can read the news report by CLICKING HERE. The full press release (including contact information from the study authors) can be found by CLICKING HERE.
The article can be found in the following journal:
“Virtual Dyscalculia Induced by Parietal-Lobe TMS Impairs Automatic Magnitude Processing” in Current Biology on 17 April 2007
