Lupo M, Olivito G, Angelini L, Funghi G, Pignatelli F, Siciliano L, Leggio M, Clausi S
Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy.
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Clin Linguist Phon. 2021 Apr 3;35(4):296-309. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2020.1745285. Epub 2020 Apr 14.
During the past decades, converging evidence from clinical, neuroimaging and neuroanatomical studies has demonstrated the key role of the cerebellum in the processing of non-motor aspects of language. Although more is known about the way in which the cerebellum participates in the mechanisms involved in written language, there is ambiguous information on its role in other aspects of language, such as in non-motor aspects of spoken language. Thus, to contribute additional insight into this important issue, in the present work, we review several original scientific papers focusing on the most frequent non-motor spoken language impairments evidenced in patients affected by cerebellar pathology, namely, verbal working memory, grammar processing and verbal fluency impairments. Starting from the collected data, we provide a common interpretation of the spoken language disorders in cerebellar patients, suggesting that sequential processing could be the main mechanism by which the cerebellum participates in these abilities. Indeed, according to the cerebellar sequential theory, spoken language impairments could be due to altered cerebellar function to supervise, synchronize and coordinate the activity of different functional modules, affecting the correct optimization of linguistic processing.
在过去几十年中，临床、神经影像学和神经解剖学研究的越来越多的证据表明，小脑在语言的非运动方面的处理中起着关键作用。尽管人们对小脑参与书面语言相关机制的方式了解得更多，但关于其在语言其他方面（如口语的非运动方面）的作用，信息并不明确。因此，为了对这个重要问题提供更多见解，在本研究中，我们回顾了几篇原创科学论文，这些论文聚焦于小脑病变患者中最常见的非运动性口语障碍，即言语工作记忆、语法处理和言语流畅性障碍。基于收集到的数据，我们对小脑病变患者的口语障碍给出了一个共同的解释，表明序列处理可能是小脑参与这些能力的主要机制。事实上，根据小脑序列理论，口语障碍可能是由于小脑功能改变，无法监督、同步和协调不同功能模块的活动，从而影响语言处理的正确优化。
