A comparison of functional activation and connectivity of the cerebellum in adults and children during single word processing

Abstract

Meta-analyses on reading show cerebellar activation in adults, but not children, suggesting a possible age-dependent role of the cerebellum in reading. However, the few studies that compare adults and children during reading report mixed cerebellar activation results. Here, we studied (i) cerebellar activation during implicit word processing in adults and children and (ii) functional connectivity (FC) between the cerebellum and left cortical regions involved in reading. First, both groups activated bilateral cerebellum for word processing when compared to fixation, but not when compared to the active control. There were no differences between adults and children. Second, we found intrinsic FC between several cerebellar seed regions and cortical target regions in adults and children, as well as between-group differences. However, task-modulated FC specific to word processing revealed no within- nor between-group results. Together this study does not provide support for a role of the cerebellum in word processing at either age.