Cerebellar-dependent delay eyeblink conditioning in adolescents with Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

Cerebellar impairments have been hypothesized as part of the pathogenesis of Specific Language Impairment (SLI), although direct evidence of cerebellar involvement is sparse. Eyeblink Conditioning (EBC) is a learning task with well documented cerebellar pathways. This is the first study of EBC in affected adolescents and controls. 16 adolescent controls, 15 adolescents with SLI, and 12 adult controls participated in a delay EBC task. Affected children had low general language performance, grammatical deficits but no speech impairments. The affected group did not differ from the control adolescent or control adult group, showing intact cerebellar functioning on the EBC task. This study did not support cerebellar impairment at the level of basic learning pathways as part of the pathogenesis of SLI. Outcomes do not rule out cerebellar influences on speech impairment, or possible other forms of cerebellar functioning as contributing to SLI.

Learning trajectories for speech motor performance in children with specific language impairment

“…Based on their findings, Zelaznik and Goffman did not find evidence of cerebellar disfunction in children with SLI. Their conclusions are further supported by recent studies of typical eyeblink conditioning in children with SLI, a task that also relies heavily on the cerebellum (Hardiman, Hsu, & Bishop, 2013; Steinmetz & Rice, 2010). …”

Neurobiological Basis of Language Learning Difficulties

“…Both children and adults with dyslexia showed similar implicit learning to controls in non-sequential contextual cueing tasks 29, 30, 31. Children with SLI also show learning similar to that of age-matched controls in other non-sequential procedural learning tasks such as the pursuit rotor task ([7], but see [32]); they do not differ from controls in eyeblink conditioning , which engages corticocerebellar circuits 33, 34. However, a sequential learning deficit cannot explain all the evidence.…”

Deficits in Coordinative Bimanual Timing Precision in Children With Specific Language Impairment

“…This type of delay conditioning occurs without explicit awareness of the relationship between the tone and the puff of air and therefore is presumably a type of procedural learning (although some controversy exists regarding this point; see Lovibond, Liu, Weidemann, & Mitchell, 2011). Neither Hardiman and colleagues (2013) nor Steinmetz and Rice (2010) identified impaired procedural learning in children with SLI on this task. Children with SLI also demonstrate comparable performance to their typically developing, age-matched peers on the pursuit rotor task, a procedural learning task that does not require sequential processing (Hsu & Bishop, 2014).…”

“…Two studies have assessed the functional integrity of the cerebellum in children with SLI through a delay eyeblink conditioning task (Hardiman, Hsu, & Bishop, 2013;Steinmetz & Rice, 2010). In this task, repeated pairings of a conditioned stimulus (such as a tone) with an unconditioned stimulus (a puff of air to the cornea) eventually elicits a conditioned eyeblink response just prior to the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus.…”