Cerebellar activation patterns in deaf participants for perception of sign language and written text.
To address the influence of language presentation on cerebellar activation, hearing volunteers were compared with deaf individuals using functional magnetic resonance imaging during observation of German sign language and text reading. In deaf participants, German sign language revealed activation of the auditory and language-related areas including the medial temporal gyrus (BA 21) and Crus I. In normal hearing participants not understanding German sign language, Crus I was less activated during observation of German sign language but strongly activated during text reading and accompanied by activation of the medial temporal gyrus. Our results indicate that cerebellar activation in Crus I corresponds to language perception as correlated with cortical activation in language-related areas and is not dependent on the mode of language presentation.
Gizewski
Elke R
ER
Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. elke.gizewski@uni-essen.de
Lambertz
Nicole
N
Ladd
Mark E
ME
Timmann
Dagmar
D
Forsting
Michael
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D003638:Deafness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading; D012813:Sign Language