The effect of cerebellar lesıons on language in Turkısh speakıng indıvıduals

Abstract

BackgroundThe cerebellum is approximately 10% of the brain volume and is responsible for attention, language, emotion and cognitive functions. Linguistic processing difficulties and cognitive impairments may be observed in individuals with cerebellar lesions depending on the location and severity of the damage. There is no study evaluating language in Turkish-speaking individuals with cerebellar lesions.ObjectiveTo determine the differences in linguistic and visuospatial skills of Turkish speaking individuals with cerebellar lesions compared to control groups, including a right hemisphere lesion group and a healthy control group.MethodFifteen patients with cerebellar lesion (without hemispatial neglect and dysarthria), 15 patients with right hemisphere lesion due to right arter cerebri media (without hemispatial neglect) and 15 healthy control were included. To clarify the language impairment specific to cerebellar lesions, we also included individuals with right hemisphere lesions, which are typically assumed not to present with aphasia. The Language Assessment Test for Aphasia (ADD), Benton Judgment of Line Orientation Test, Benton Facial Recognition Test, Single Letter Deletion Test were used. The "Accident Scene" picture was used for collecting narrative speech samples. After a three group comparison a post-hoc pairwise analysis was performed.ResultsAmong the microstructural parameters in the narrative language analysis, the effort ratio was significantly higher in the cerebellar lesion group compared to the healthy control group. Among the non-verbal cognitive tests, the Benton Facial Recognition Test score was significantly lower in the cerebellar and right hemisphere lesion group compared to the healthy control group. Total score, naming and grammar scores in the ADD test were significantly lower in the cerebellar lesion group compared with the healthy control group. There was no difference between cerebellar and right hemisphere lesions in terms of ADD score, ADD subtests and narrative parameters.ConclusionIn Turkish-speaking individuals with cerebellar lesions, verbal productivity may be interrupted by effort behaviours, and standard aphasia assessment tests may reveal impaired grammar and naming performance without a diagnosis of aphasia. In addition to reduced efficiency in verbal production, facial recognition may be impaired. We found no difference between individuals with lesions in the cerebellum and right hemisphere. This suggests that ischemic damage may affect different components of language independently of the diagnosis of aphasia.