Processing Past Tense in the left cerebellum

Abstract

We report the case of a patient with ischemic lesion of the left cerebellum, who showed specific deficits in processing past versus future tense of action verbs. These findings confirm, in the presence of cerebellar damage, previous results obtained with transcranial magnetic stimulation in healthy subjects and suggest a specificity of the left cerebellum for preparation of responses to the past tense of action verbs. As part of the procedural brain, the cerebellum could play a role in applying the linguistic rules for selection of morphemes typical of past and future tense formation.