The Cerebellum's Relationship to Language Function Following Perinatal Stroke

Authors

Carolina Alexis Vias, Florida International UniversityFollow

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Major/Program

Psychology

First Advisor's Name

Anthony Steven Dick

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee chair

Second Advisor's Name

Angela Laird

Second Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Third Advisor's Name

Robert Lickliter

Third Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Fourth Advisor's Name

Eliza Nelson

Fourth Advisor's Committee Title

Committee member

Keywords

Cerebellum, Language, Perinatal Stroke, Cognition, Post-stroke development, language development, MRI, Structural analysis

Date of Defense

5-18-2021

Abstract

While recent studies have demonstrated the association between the cerebellum and higher-order cognitive functioning, it is still unclear how volumetric differences of specific regions of interests within the cerebellum across typical and atypical development are related to language function. We have done so by measuring the volume of cerebellar subregions of healthy controls, and compared the volume to behavioral measures of language function. We then followed with an analysis of the cerebellum’s relationship to language function following perinatal stroke, which provides us with a greater knowledge of the impact of a cortical injury on cerebellar development and the cognitive outcomes of such changes by again measuring and comparing the volume of cerebellar subregions to language measures. We report several novel findings that contribute to the growing understanding of the cerebellum’s relationship to language function. We found that greater right laterality of lobules IV and VIIb predicted performance on expressive language measures in typical development. We also found that following an early injury to the cerebral cortex's left hemisphere, there was a bilateral association of cerebellar lobules to language measures. Specifically, we found greater right laterality of the cerebellar cortex, lobule IV, and Crus I predicted higher scores on the Expressive Vocabulary Test. While greater left lateralization of lobule VI predicted expressive language and lobule VIIIa predicted grammatical judgment, especially early in development, and greater left lateralization of lobule IX predicted receptive vocabulary. Implications of the findings of volumetric association to language function and poststroke development within the cerebellum are discussed.

Identifier

FIDC010204

Recommended Citation

Vias, Carolina Alexis, "The Cerebellum's Relationship to Language Function Following Perinatal Stroke" (2021). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4813.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/4813