A Test of the Cerebellar Hypothesis of Dyslexia in Adequate and Inadequate Responders to Reading Intervention

Overview

Journal J Int Neuropsychol Soc

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialties Neurology
Psychology

Date 2010 Mar 20

PMID 20298639

Citations 7

Authors

Amy E Barth

Carolyn A Denton

Karla K Stuebing

Jack M Fletcher

Paul T Cirino

David J Francis

Sharon Vaughn

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The cerebellar hypothesis of dyslexia posits that cerebellar deficits are associated with reading disabilities and may explain why some individuals with reading disabilities fail to respond to reading interventions. We tested these hypotheses in a sample of children who participated in a grade 1 reading intervention study (n = 174) and a group of typically achieving children (n = 62). At posttest, children were classified as adequately responding to the intervention (n = 82), inadequately responding with decoding and fluency deficits (n = 36), or inadequately responding with only fluency deficits (n = 56). Based on the Bead Threading and Postural Stability subtests from the Dyslexia Screening Test-Junior, we found little evidence that assessments of cerebellar functions were associated with academic performance or responder status. In addition, we did not find evidence supporting the hypothesis that cerebellar deficits are more prominent for poor readers with "specific" reading disabilities (i.e., with discrepancies relative to IQ) than for poor readers with reading scores consistent with IQ. In contrast, measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, and vocabulary were strongly associated with responder status and academic outcomes. These results add to accumulating evidence that fails to associate cerebellar functions with reading difficulties.

Citing Articles

No evidence for cerebellar abnormality in adults with developmental dyslexia.

Van Oers C, Goldberg N, Fiorin G, van den Heuvel M, Kappelle L, Wijnen F Exp Brain Res. 2018; 236(11):2991-3001.

PMID: 30116863 PMC: 6223834. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-018-5351-y.

Dyslexic Children Show Atypical Cerebellar Activation and Cerebro-Cerebellar Functional Connectivity in Orthographic and Phonological Processing.

Feng X, Li L, Zhang M, Yang X, Tian M, Xie W Cerebellum. 2016; 16(2):496-507.

PMID: 27785760 DOI: 10.1007/s12311-016-0829-2.

White matter integrity of cerebellar-cortical tracts in reading impaired children: A probabilistic tractography study.

Fernandez V, Juranek J, Romanowska-Pawliczek A, Stuebing K, Williams V, Fletcher J Brain Lang. 2015; 161:45-56.

PMID: 26307492 PMC: 4803624. DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2015.07.006.

The influence of oculomotor tasks on postural control in dyslexic children.

Bucci M, Melithe D, Ajrezo L, Bui-Quoc E, Gerard C Front Hum Neurosci. 2014; 8:981.

PMID: 25538603 PMC: 4260515. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00981.

Cerebellar white matter pathways are associated with reading skills in children and adolescents.

Travis K, Leitner Y, Feldman H, Ben-Shachar M Hum Brain Mapp. 2014; 36(4):1536-53.

PMID: 25504986 PMC: 4374012. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.22721.

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