We compared behavioural outcomes between groups and examined their association with cerebellar connectivity. CA patients showed deficits in social text comprehension and normal scores in the non-social text. Also, social text outcomes in controls selectively correlated with connectivity between the cerebellum and key regions subserving multi-modal semantics and social cognition, including the superior and medial temporal gyri, the temporal pole and the insula. Conversely, brain-behaviour associations involving the cerebellum were abolished in the patients. Thus, cerebellar structures and connections seem involved in processing social concepts evoked by naturalistic discourse. Such findings invite new theoretical and translational developments integrating social neuroscience with embodied semantics.
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Social concepts and the cerebellum: behavioural and functional connectivity signatures in cerebellar ataxic patients
Lopes da Cunha Pamela, Fittipaldi Sol, González Campo Cecilia, Kauffman Marcelo, Rodríguez-Quiroga Sergio, Yacovino Darío Andrés, Ibáñez Agustín, Birba Agustina and García Adolfo M. 2023; Phil. Trans. R. Soc., B3782021036420210364, doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0364
