Effects of Cerebellar Stimulation on Processing Semantic Associations

Citation

Argyropoulos GP & Muggleton NG (2013) Effects of Cerebellar Stimulation on Processing Semantic Associations. Cerebellum, 12 (1), pp. 83-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-012-0398-y

Abstract
Current research in cerebellar cognitive and linguistic functions makes plausible the idea that the cerebellum is involved in processing temporally contiguous linguistic input. In order to assess this hypothesis, a lexical decision task was constructed to study the effects of cerebellar transcranial magnetic stimulation on semantic noun-to-verb priming based on association (e.g. ‘soap–cleaning’) or similarity (e.g. ‘robbery–stealing’). The results demonstrated a selective increase in associative priming size after stimulation of a lateral cerebellar site. The findings are discussed in the contexts of a cerebellar role in linguistic expectancy generation and the corticocerebellar ‘prefrontal’ reciprocal loop.

Keywords
Neocerebellum; TMS; Priming; Prediction; Top-down processing

Journal
Cerebellum: Volume 12, Issue 1