Developmental dyscalculia in adults: Current issues and open questions for future research.

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a chronic condition that poses not only a barrier to employment and socio-emotional wellbeing but that also persists into adulthood. Thus, understanding the neuro-cognitive foundations of DD is relevant for both children and adults with DD. However, so far the vast majority of scientific research endeavours has been dedicated to the study of DD in children only. Consequently, our current understanding of DD in adulthood is rather patchy. The main aim of the present review is to summarize the scientific findings on DD in adults by focusing on its cognitive manifestations and neural substrates in adults. For instance, research on DD in adulthood suggests that – beyond an outstanding deficiency in number processing – the processing of non-numerical magnitudes and domain-general skills seem to be also impaired in adults suffering from persistent DD. A secondary aim of this review is to delineate future lines of research that will provide us with a more elaborate understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of DD in adults (thus fostering the development of sensitive diagnostic marker tasks), and to formulate potential intervention areas targeting deficiencies frequently characterizing DD in adults.