title: Dyslexic Children Show Atypical Cerebellar Activation and Cerebro-Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Orthographic and Phonological Processing.
abstract: Previous neuroimaging studies have found atypical cerebellar activation in individuals with dyslexia in either motor-related tasks or language tasks. However, studies investigating atypical cerebellar activation in individuals with dyslexia have mostly used tasks tapping phonological processing. A question that is yet unanswered is whether the cerebellum in individuals with dyslexia functions properly during orthographic processing of words, as growing evidence shows that the cerebellum is also involved in visual and spatial processing. Here, we investigated cerebellar activation and cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity during word processing in dyslexic readers and typically developing readers using tasks that tap orthographic and phonological codes. In children with dyslexia, we observed an abnormally higher engagement of the bilateral cerebellum for the orthographic task, which was negatively correlated with literacy measures. The greater the reading impairment was for young dyslexic readers, the stronger the cerebellar activation was. This suggests a compensatory role of the cerebellum in reading for children with dyslexia. In addition, a tendency for higher cerebellar activation in dyslexic readers was found in the phonological task. Moreover, the functional connectivity was stronger for dyslexic readers relative to typically developing readers between the lobule VI of the right cerebellum and the left fusiform gyrus during the orthographic task and between the lobule VI of the left cerebellum and the left supramarginal gyrus during the phonological task. This pattern of results suggests that the cerebellum compensates for reading impairment through the connections with specific brain regions responsible for the ongoing reading task. These findings enhance our understanding of the cerebellum's involvement in reading and reading impairment.
authors: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xiaoxia
authors: X
authors: Feng
authors: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.
authors: Le
authors: L
authors: Li
authors: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors: Manli
authors: M
authors: Zhang
authors: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors: Xiujie
authors: X
authors: Yang
authors: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.
authors: Mengyu
authors: M
authors: Tian
authors: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors: Weiyi
authors: W
authors: Xie
authors: Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.
authors: Yao
authors: Y
authors: Lu
authors: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Liu
authors: Laboratory for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, 92120, USA.
authors: Nathalie N
authors: NN
authors: Bélanger
authors: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, People's Republic of China. mengxzh@pku.edu.cn.
authors: Xiangzhi
authors: X
authors: Meng
authors: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China. dinggsh@bnu.edu.cn.|Center for Collaboration and Innovation in Brain and Learning Sciences, Beijing, 100875, People's Republic of China. dinggsh@bnu.edu.cn.
authors: Guosheng
authors: G
authors: Ding
mesh_terms: D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading
keywords: Cerebellum; Cerebro-cerebellar circuits; Compensation; Dyslexia; Functional connectivity; Overactivation