Originally published October 7 2005
Boston researchers relocate some higher cognitive functions to the cerebellum
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
At Children's Hospital Boston, a study of premature infants suggests that damage to the cerebellum can have greater consequences in terms of language development than was previously believed.
Sophisticated MRI imaging of 74 preterm infants' brains revealed that when there was injury to the cerebrum, the cerebellum failed to grow to a normal size.
When the cerebral injury was confined to one side, it was the opposite cerebellar hemisphere that failed to grow normally.
The reverse was also true: when injury occurred in one cerebellar hemisphere, the opposite cerebral hemisphere was smaller than normal.
"There seems to be an important developmental link between the cerebrum and the cerebellum," says Catherine Limperopoulos, PhD, in Children's Department of Neurology, the study's lead author.
Improved survival of fragile preemies, coupled with a surge in premature births, has left more and more families to deal with the damage to their babies' brains -- including cerebellar damage.
In March, Limperopoulos and colleagues published a study in Pediatrics showing that the cerebellum grows rapidly late in gestation -- much faster than the cerebral hemispheres -- and that premature birth arrests this surge in development.
In another study, published in Pediatrics in September, they found that the incidence of cerebellar hemorrhage in extremely premature infants rose significantly, by about 44 percent a year, from 1998 through 2002 -- an increase they attribute to improved survival and improved diagnostic techniques.
By 2002, cerebellar hemorrhage was identified in 15 percent of surviving infants weighing less than 750 grams.
Limperopoulos and colleagues compared 31 toddlers, born prematurely and identified at birth as having cerebellar hemorrhage (but no cerebral injury) with 31 controls who were also born prematurely, but whose brain imaging studies were normal.
In addition to motor problems, over half the children with cerebellar injury had functional limitations in daily living, communication, and socialization skills, compared with only 3 percent of controls.
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