Cerebellar contribution to linguistic processing efficiency revealed by focal damage.
The cerebellum's role in cognitive skills was examined in a child (L.C.) with focal injury to the left cerebellum. Initial symptoms included aphasia and dysarthria. At 3 and 9 months post-injury, clinical neuropsychological tests revealed persistent psychomotor slowing as well as deficits in executive functions. Further cognitive testing at 13 and 16 months post-injury demonstrated that L.C. processed information from both the linguistic and nonlinguistic domains more slowly than age-, grade- and sex-matched controls. Notably, her linguistic processing was more than twice as slow as that of her peers, whereas her nonlinguistic processing was only approximately 20% slower. Within each domain the degree of cognitive slowing was approximately the same across diverse tasks. These results are consistent with the hypothesis of a cerebellar contribution to cognitive processing, particularly the processing of linguistic information.
Schatz
J
J
Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA. jschatz@itsa.ucsf.edu
Hale
S
S
Myerson
J
J
D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000151:congenital / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D014888:Wechsler Scales