LANGUAGE AND THE CEREBELLUM (SYNTAX).
Material type:
TextDescription: 127 pSubject(s): Psychology, Cognitive | Language, Linguistics | Biology, Neuroscience | 0633 | 0290 | 0317Dissertation note: Thesis (PH.D.)--BROWN UNIVERSITY, 1998. Summary: The role of the cerebellum in language, speech, and cognition was investigated by assessing the effect of cerebellar pathology on the performance of tasks in the three domains. Recent studies suggest that the cerebellum is involved in some aspects of higher cognition, including language. However, results from quantitative assessments of syntactic ability have not been reported. The performance of a group of seven subjects with cerebellar pathology on a battery of tests was compared to that of a normal control group. Language processing was assessed by the Test of Meaning from Syntax (TMS1 and TMS2); speech was assessed by examining the production of voice onset time (VOT) and vowel durations; cognitive abilities were assessed using three additional tasks, Verbal Fluency, Odd Man Out, and Digit Span Backwards. Four of the seven cerebellar subjects had scores below the normal range on the sentence comprehension tasks, two cerebellar subjects had scores below the normal range on cognitive tasks, and four cerebellar subjects showed abnormal VOT production. The combined groups showed a significant correlation between the VOT measure and performance on TMS2. The language results are discussed in the context of current models of the role of the cerebellum in motor learning.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 59-04, Section: B, page: 1878.
Adviser: PHILIP LIEBERMAN.
Thesis (PH.D.)--BROWN UNIVERSITY, 1998.
The role of the cerebellum in language, speech, and cognition was investigated by assessing the effect of cerebellar pathology on the performance of tasks in the three domains. Recent studies suggest that the cerebellum is involved in some aspects of higher cognition, including language. However, results from quantitative assessments of syntactic ability have not been reported. The performance of a group of seven subjects with cerebellar pathology on a battery of tests was compared to that of a normal control group. Language processing was assessed by the Test of Meaning from Syntax (TMS1 and TMS2); speech was assessed by examining the production of voice onset time (VOT) and vowel durations; cognitive abilities were assessed using three additional tasks, Verbal Fluency, Odd Man Out, and Digit Span Backwards. Four of the seven cerebellar subjects had scores below the normal range on the sentence comprehension tasks, two cerebellar subjects had scores below the normal range on cognitive tasks, and four cerebellar subjects showed abnormal VOT production. The combined groups showed a significant correlation between the VOT measure and performance on TMS2. The language results are discussed in the context of current models of the role of the cerebellum in motor learning.
School code: 0024.
There are no comments on this title.