title: The cerebellum's role in reading: a functional MR imaging study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Long considered to have a role limited largely to motor-related functions, the cerebellum has recently been implicated as being involved in both perceptual and cognitive processes. Our purpose was to determine whether cerebellar activation occurs during cognitive tasks that differentially engage the component processes of word identification in reading.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-two neurologically normal adults underwent functional MR imaging of the cerebellum with a gradient-echo echo-planar technique while performing tasks designed to study the cognitive processing used in reading. A standard levels-of-processing paradigm was used. Participants were asked to determine whether pairs of words were written in the same case (orthographic processing), whether pairs of words and non-words rhymed with each other, respectively (phonologic assembly), and whether pairs of words belonged to the same category (semantic processing). Composite maps were generated from a general linear model based on a randomization of statistical parametric maps.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During phonologic assembly, cerebellar activation was observed in the middle and posterior aspects of the posterior superior fissure and adjacent simple lobule and semilunar lobule bilaterally and in posterior aspects of the simple lobule, superior semilunar lobule, and inferior semilunar lobule bilaterally. Semantic processing, however, resulted in activation in the deep nuclear region on the right and in the inferior vermis, in addition to posterior areas active in phonologic assembly, including the simple, superior semilunar, and inferior semilunar lobules.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The cerebellum is engaged during reading and differentially activates in response to phonologic and semantic tasks. These results indicate that the cerebellum contributes to the cognitive processes integral to reading.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA.
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Fulbright
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Jenner
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Mencl
authors.forename: K R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Pugh
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Shaywitz
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Shaywitz
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Frost
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skudlarski
authors.forename: R T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Constable
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Lacadie
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Marchione
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gore
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning / Q000502:physiology; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D012016:Reference Values; D012660:Semantics