Weaker number sense accounts for impaired numerosity perception in dyscalculia: Behavioral and computational evidence

Impaired numerosity perception in developmental dyscalculia (low “number acuity”) has been interpreted as evidence of reduced representational precision in the neurocognitive system supporting non‐symbolic number sense. However, recent studies suggest that poor numerosity judgments might stem from stronger interference from non‐numerical visual information, in line with alternative accounts that highlight impairments in executive functions and visuospatial abilities in the etiology of dyscalculia. To resolve this debate, we used a psychophysical method designed to disentangle the contribution of numerical and non‐numerical features to explicit numerosity judgments in a dot comparison task and we assessed the relative saliency of numerosity in a spontaneous categorization task. Children with dyscalculia were compared to control children with average mathematical skills matched for age, IQ, and visuospatial memory. In the comparison task, the lower accuracy of dyscalculics compared to controls was linked to weaker encoding of numerosity, but not to the strength of non‐numerical biases. Similarly, in the spontaneous categorization task, children with dyscalculia showed a weaker number‐based categorization compared to the control group, with no evidence of a stronger influence of non‐numerical information on category choice. Simulations with a neurocomputational model of numerosity perception showed that the reduction of representational resources affected the progressive refinement of number acuity, with little effect on non‐numerical bias in numerosity judgments. Together, these results suggest that impaired numerosity perception in dyscalculia cannot be explained by increased interference from non‐numerical visual cues, thereby supporting the hypothesis of a core number sense deficit.

Research Highlights

• A strongly debated issue is whether impaired numerosity perception in dyscalculia stems from a deficit in number sense or from poor executive and visuospatial functions.
• Dyscalculic children show reduced precision in visual numerosity judgments and weaker number‐based spontaneous categorization, but no increasing reliance on continuous visual properties.
• Simulations with deep neural networks demonstrate that reduced neural/computational resources affect the developmental trajectory of number acuity and account for impaired numerosity judgments.
• Our findings show that weaker number acuity in developmental dyscalculia is not necessarily related to increased interference from non‐numerical visual cues.