Reading-selective areas in the cerebellum in adult bilingual readers

Abstract Fluent word reading requires the processing and integration of orthography, Phonology, and semantics. Previous research has mainly focused on the relevant neural correlates in the cerebrum; however, it remains unclear whether the cerebellum also involved areas that are biased towards reading. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, we conducted two experiments in adult bilingual readers. In experiment I, we compared cerebellar activation in different conditions, including the word reading, pseudoword reading, and picture viewing, as well as in different languages. The results revealed a significant enhancement in activation of the right cerebellar lobule VI and VIII in the word reading condition compared to the other two control conditions across languages. Additionally, these two regions also did not show preference for picture-viewing task, i.e., the emotional processing task, consolidating the specific contribution of these two regions to reading. Experiment II demonstrated that activation matrix of the reading-selective areas were significantly correlated with phonological matrix and showed high inter-subject correlation in the rhyming task, implying an association between this region with phonological processing. These findings offer a comprehensive investigation into the cerebellum's role in reading, enhancing our understanding of cognitive reading models and providing insights for improving reading abilities and interventions for reading disorders.