The selective contribution of the right cerebellar lobule VI to reading

The engagement of the cerebellum in reading is not unprecedented. However, it is still unclear which regions in the cerebellum are specifically involved in reading and how the cerebellum processes different languages. With functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared the cerebellar neural activity of Chinese child learners of English between reading and non-reading tasks to identify functionally specialized areas for reading, and between Chinese characters and English words in a passive viewing paradigm to detect regions sensitive to different scripts. We first focused on the right lobule VI, during which we observed two subregions in the posterior parts of right lobule VI showing greater activation in the reading tasks compared to the non-reading tasks. We then extended the target areas to the whole cerebellum, during which we observed another region, the right lobule VIIIA, demonstrating the same contrast pattern across tasks as the posterior parts of right lobule VI. However, we did not find any cerebellar regions showing significant language effects in terms of cerebellar activation. Instead, we observed that functional connectivity between the posterior part of right lobule VI and the left inferior parietal lobule was significantly greater in English reading compared to Chinese reading. Overall, these results indicate that the posterior part of right lobule VI and the right lobule VIIIA could be reading-specific regions. Even though activation in these two regions may not be able to differentiate scripts in a passive viewing condition, the right lobule VI contributed differently across languages by connecting with different cerebral regions. These findings deepen our understanding of how the cerebellum contributes to reading.