The contribution of the cerebellum to mental and social functions in developmental age.

Here are present the data concerning the intellectual, language and frontal performances of 24 children who had undergone surgery because of cerebellar hemispheric or vermis tumors and one girl with viral cerebellitis. The children with right cerebellar tumors presented auditory sequential memory and language processing disturbances; those with left cerebellar tumors showed deficits in spatial tests and visual sequential memory. The girl with cerebellitis showed a complex neuropsychological picture with impairment in processing language and in general sequential functions. Lesions of the vermis lead to two pictures: 1) a postsurgical mutism that could be subdivided into speech disorders (even to the extent of anarthria) and true language disturbances similar to frontal aphasia; and 2) behavioral disturbances ranging from irritability to a truly autistic response. These data seem to support the recently attributed role of the cerebellum as a modulator of the superior mental and social functions.