Social concepts and the cerebellum: behavioural and functional connectivity signatures in cerebellar ataxic patients

Abstract

Neurocognitive research on social concepts underscores their reliance on fronto-temporo-limbic regions mediating broad socio-cognitive skills. Yet, the field has neglected another structure increasingly implicated in social cognition: the cerebellum. The present exploratory study examines this link combining a novel naturalistic text paradigm, a relevant atrophy model and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fifteen cerebellar ataxia (CA) patients with focal cerebellar atrophy and 29 matched controls listened to a social text (highlighting interpersonal events) as well as a non-social text (focused on a single person's actions), and answered comprehension questionnaires. 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. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences’.

Automated free speech analysis reveals distinct markers of Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia

“…These results align with situated views of language disruptions, which posit that specific cognitive and socio-affective deficits are reflected in germane linguistic categories [ 69 , 70 ]. Specifically, disruption of neurocognitive systems mediating self-awareness and perspective taking would lead to reduced self-reference, leading to exocentric (third person) linguistic references to construe daily events.…”

Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner experiences

“…Lopes da Cunha et al [ 60 ] use a novel paradigm in which they combine a novel naturalistic text-reading paradigm, a relevant atrophy model, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the comprehension of social and non-social texts in patients with cerebellar ataxia (CA) and controls. They found that CA patients were impaired in grasping social but not non-social concepts.…”

“…Other papers focus more explicitly on language and its relationship with concepts, showing the importance of inner language, verbal labels and word associations for concrete and abstract concepts, and highlighting the role of language in enhancing cognition. Across the various sections, the theme issue offers many insights into the differences between kinds of concepts, from the significant distinction between concrete and abstract ones [ 2 , 8 , 9 , 56 , 57 ], to specific concepts like the religious [ 58 ], the social [ 59 , 60 ], the olfactory [ 61 ] and the emotional ones [ 38 , 42 ].…”

“…[ 2 , 65 ]), and new neuroscience methodologies, including dual-person neuroscience (e.g. [ 29 , 60 ]). We also include a pledge to integrate qualitative microanalyses with quantitative methods [ 5 ].…”

Bilinguals on the footbridge: the role of foreign-language proficiency in moral decision making

“…First, reciprocal links between linguistic and socio-cognitive skills have been reported in varied populations. For example, comprehension of social concepts correlates with the integrity of social cognition networks in neurodegenerative patients (Birba et al, 2022 ; Lopes da Cunha et al, 2023 ), and emotional language can bias moral judgments in laypersons but not in legal experts (Baez et al, 2020 ). Our study adds to this trend, showing that socio-affective functions may also be shaped by individual language profiles.…”