Postoperative cerebellar mutism and autistic spectrum disorder.

PURPOSE: I read the article "An Inside View of Autism" written by a 44-year-old autistic woman who had a successful international career designing livestock equipment. In this article, she wrote about her life, disease, and experiences as an autistic individual. She stated that "It is interesting that my speech resembled the stressed speech in young children who have had tumors removed from the cerebellum".
METHODS: In this article, we intend to review and extensively document both postoperative cerebellar mutism and autistic spectrum disorder.
RESULTS: We reviewed the clinical and neurological findings, etio-pathogenesis, neuroanatomy, mechanisms of development, and similarities between the etio-pathogenesis of both diseases.
CONCLUSIONS: Cerebellar lesions can produce mutism and dysarthria, symptoms sometimes seen in autistic spectrum disorder. In mammals, cerebellar lesions disturb motivated behavior and reduce social interactions, functions that are disturbed in autistic spectrum disorder and cerebellar mutism. The cerebellum and two regions within the frontal lobes are active in certain language tasks. Language is abnormal in autistic spectrum disorder and cerebellar mutism.