1. Cerebellar contributions to language development following pre­ or perinatal brain
damage
Yaretson Carmenate*,​ Carolina Vias, Alexarae Bryon, Anthony Steven Dick
Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, 33199
The proposed study aims to fill in the notable gap in the understanding of cerebellar
function and its relation to higher­level cortical function, most significantly its relationship
to language recovery following early stroke. Although adults who sustain strokes that
impact regions of the cerebral cortex supporting language function can have lasting or
permanent language impairment, fetuses and neonates who sustain strokes during the
pre­ or perinatal period often show remarkable recovery (Anderson, Spencer­Smith, &
Wood, 2011). However, we don’t know why the developing brain is so resilient to early
stroke, or how it organizes to recover language function following early brain injury.
Previous studies have focused on how changes in lateralization of language in the
cerebral cortex (Raja Beharelle et al., 2010) or changes in interhemispheric cortical
connectivity (Dick, Raja Beharelle, Solodkin, & Small, 2013) relate to syntactic,
expressive, and receptive language outcome following early stroke. However, less
attention has been paid to the recovery and organization of the broader language
network that includes subcortical structures, particularly the ​cerebellum​. Although
classically considered part of the motor system, the cerebellum has recently been
associated, through its cortical connectivity, with higher cognitive function (Balsters,
Whelan, Robertson, & Ramnani, 2012), including language (Murdoch, 2009). In fact,
perinatal stroke is associated with cerebellar atrophy, suggesting early degeneration of
corticopontocerebellar connections (Mah, deVeber, Wei, Liapounova, & Kirton, 2013).
Because the cerebellum sits at the base of the skull, it is situated in a position that can
be targeted by non­invasive electrostimulation therapies. Such therapies may contribute
to recovery of language function following early stroke, but there is no consensus on
what areas of the cerebellum to target using these therapies, or whether they would be
effective. To obtain a better understanding of the issue, we will examine a data set of 42
structural magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of brains of individuals who have suffered
a pre­ or perinatal stroke, as well as 26 of their siblings without brain injury. We will
manually parcellate, with reference to a cerebellar atlas, the cerebellum into anatomical
regions of interest (ROIs), quantify each ROI’s volume, and correlate it with standardized
measures of language syntax, receptive language, and expressive language. Our
hypothesis is based in known cortico­cerebellar connectivity. Specifically, we expect that
cortical stroke will affect specific regions of the cerebellum. If the cerebellum is important
for language development, the amount of atrophy will be predictive of language
outcome. If the cerebellum is found not to be important for language development,
atrophy will not be predictive. Because siblings won’t experience atrophy, we expect no
correlation with cerebellar volume in this “control” group. Further, because the
corticopontocerebellar pathways are crossed (meaning the left cerebral cortex projects
to the right cerebellar cortex) we expect the effect to be stronger in the contralateral
cerebellum. If significant results are to be found, these findings would potentially
influence therapeutic strategies for language recovery following pre­ or perinatal brain
injury.

2. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development (NICHD) P01HD040605, National Institute of Deafness and Other
Communication Disorders (NIDCD) RO1DC003378 and F32DC008909, and the National
Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) RO1NS54942.