Calculation and number processing abilities in 17 patients suffering from a mild form of dementia of Alzheimer's type (DAT) were studied by means of a standardized multitask assessment battery, the EC301 (Deloche et al., 1994). Patients were selected from a larger sample by using a specific visuo-perceptive task to control the confounding effects of deficits in analysing digit serial order. Language and memory skills were evaluated by means of standardized testing procedures. The EC301 overall score showed impaired performance in 12 cases. Calculation and number processing scores were highly correlated with Mini-Mental State Examination and language performance. However, multiple single-case analyses indicated heterogeneous patterns of preserved/impaired abilities with respect to the three cognitive areas under investigation (calculation, memory, and language) and to the different components of the calculation and number processing system.

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A case of global aphasia is reported. In spite of severe impairments in auditory comprehension, as testified by failure in matching spoken words to pictured objects, the patient performed significantly higher than chance level in sorting out the odd item from a spoken list of semantically related words. This preserved ability to achieve the semantic processing of "non-understood" spoken words in the given task is compared to similar experimental data from the study of written word comprehension in dyslexic patients or normal subjects. Taken together, these data call for a procedural approach of the lexicon. In this theoretical framework, lexical meaning should not only be stored and retrieved but it should be computed at each word occurrence.

The present study investigates the relationship between affective mood state as assessed by self- and hetero-rating scales and information processing of negative versus positive emotional stimuli in unilateral brain-damaged patients. Results show a high positive correlation between depressive mood scores and rating of self-awareness. Left brain-damaged (LBD) patients do not differ significantly from right brain-damaged (RBD) patients on both rating scales. RBD patients mismatch negative emotional stimuli in the nonverbal matching task. Results are discussed with reference to interaction between expression of emotion and cognition. The selective neglect of negative information is interpreted as a more basic emotional impairment.