Linguistic and cognitive deficits associated with cerebellar mutism

Cerebellar mutism is a period of transient loss of speech following posterior fossa surgery, usually in children under 15 years of age. To date, cases presented in the literature have addressed primarily the motor speech aspect of the phenomenon, with little documentation relative to higher-level linguistic and cognitive functioning of these children. Recent research, however, is increasingly documenting evidence of cerebellar involvement in language and cognition. This paper describes four children, three of whom presented with a period of mutism following posterior fossa surgery, and one who did not exhibit mutism. All children, however, demonstrated a similar profile of significant high-level linguistic and cognitive deficit on formal speech-language and neuropsychological measures. Documented cases to date are reviewed and compared to these subjects. Literature documenting the role of the cerebellum in language and cognition is summarized and compared to evidence of residual deficits associated with cerebellar mutism as demonstrated by the children in this study.