Impact of cerebellar lesion on syntactic processing evidenced by event-related potentials

In concern to the uncertain neural signature of the cerebellum in syntax processing, we investigated the Syntactic Positive Shift (SPS) for sentences with syntax violations in patients with cerebellar damage. In opposite to controls, patients showed no SPS around 300–650 ms for syntax violations. Interestingly, Minimum-Norm analysis of SPS revealed increased activity in supramarginal and homologous Broca area for syntax violations in patients with cerebellar infarction. Overall, our findings support the still growing knowledge of the involvement of the cerebellum in cerebral networks in syntactic processing as evidenced by a sensitive ERP component.

► Syntactic positive shifts (SPS) characterize syntax processings of the human brain.
► SPS are predominately addressed to cerebral areas.
► Cerebellar lesionings revealed a sparsing of SPS to strands with syntax violations.
► SPS represent also non-cerebral areas in displaying syntax processing.