Through the GRINP project I have addressed both scientific and clinical aims. Specifically, I have implemented two main lines of research: a line of research concerns the study of interaction between hand action and number processing and its neural correlated in populations of healthy adults (WP2) to investigate where and how processing number magnitude recruits the same sensorimotor network involved in planning and executing hand movements; a second line of research concerns neuropsychological investigation of brain damaged patients to disclose the type of impairment associated to lesions in brain areas common to number processing and hand action (WP1). The GRINP project have been conducted thanks to the enthusiastic contribution of many colleagues from the University of Padova, the San Camillo IRCCS hospital, the ULB-Erasme hospital, and national and international colleagues from other institutions.
Different methodological approaches from experimental psychology, neuropsychology, and cognitive neurosciences have been used in this project. With behavioural experiments I have investigated the effect of observing or performing hand action on number processing, and I have provided evidence for common cognitive processes between planning and execution of grasping and pointing actions, and number magnitude. Importantly, with these studies we implemented - for the first time in the numerical cognition research - paradigms based on motor adaptation, and we extended previous findings on number-action interactions describing interactions between pointing and number processing. I am currently investigating whether in is possible to observe the same interaction in tasks requiring judging numerical order instead of magnitude. Again, I have described the common brain network of reach, grasp, and number processing through meta-analyses of neuroimaging data, and through the use of neuroimaging methods (e.g. functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy - fNIRS): these studies allowed defining a consistent frontoparietal network common to grasping and number, involving areas in and around the intraparietal sulcus in both hemispheres, the left precentral gyrus, and the supplementary motor area. Further analyses on the collected data will allow defining associations between brain networks observed at rest and numerical abilities, such as mental calculation. Finally, I have implemented a short neuropsychological assessment for the detection of acalculia, number-grasping interactions, as well as action-related cognitive impairment such as apraxia, finger agnosia, and optic ataxia following stroke in the parietal lobe. The current results on the patients’ data indicate that number and action-related impairment following parietal stroke should be consistently integrated in standard neuropsychological assessment.
The project and its ongoing results have been documented in scientific peer-reviewed publications, to national (Italian) and international conferences, and through videos and interviews. Scientific articles, contributions at conferences, and dissemination activities associated to the GRINP project are open and can be found in the Research Padua Archive (IRIS, UNIPD).
