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Lateralized cerebellar contributions to word generation: a phonemic and semantic fluency study
Tom A Schweizer1, Michael P Alexander, B A Susan Gillingham
1Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. schweizert@smh.toronto.on.ca
Behavioural Neurology
|August 18, 2010
Summary
Right cerebellar lesions impair phonemic verbal fluency, affecting word production speed and strategy use. This suggests a role for the cerebellum in attention and executive functions, similar to prefrontal cortex.
Area of Science:
- Neuropsychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Verbal fluency deficits are inconsistently reported after cerebellar lesions.
- The cognitive underpinnings of these deficits remain under-investigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of unilateral cerebellar lesions on phonemic and semantic verbal fluency.
- To explore the cognitive basis of verbal fluency impairment following cerebellar damage.
Main Methods:
- Twenty-two patients with chronic unilateral cerebellar lesions (12 Left, 10 Right) and 30 controls completed phonemic and semantic fluency tasks.
- Performance was assessed by total words, initial word production (15s), errors, and strategy switches.
Main Results:
- Patients with right cerebellar lesions (RC) produced fewer words in phonemic fluency, especially within the first 15 seconds, with fewer strategy switches and no increased errors.
- The RC group showed a modest decrease in total words for semantic fluency compared to controls.
- Performance characteristics in RC patients resembled those with left prefrontal lesions.
Conclusions:
- Right cerebellar lesions significantly impair phonemic verbal fluency, impacting initiation and strategy use.
- Findings support a prefrontal-lateral cerebellar network involved in attention, executive functions, and task strategy modulation.
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