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Language Processing in Posterior Fossa Tumour Patients : Psycholinguistic Insights into the Word-Finding Ability

Ahmed, Rida ; Reinders, Aliene ; Svaldi, Cheyenne ; Kingma, Annet ; Persson, Karin LU orcid ; Thomsen, Ditte Boeg LU ; Grønbaek, Jonathan Kjær ; Laustsen, Aske Foldbjerg ; Mathiasen, René and Pizer, Barry , et al. (2026) In Cerebellum 25(3).
Abstract

Background: Word finding - the ability to retrieve and produce appropriate words in response to prompts or visual stimuli - is impaired in some patients with a posterior fossa tumour. Yet, few studies use preoperative assessment as a baseline, and an in-depth linguistic analysis of tasks assessing word-finding ability remains limited. The current study aims to fill this knowledge gap by analysing pre- and postoperative word-finding ability and identifying its linguistic predictors. Method: 38 English-speaking patients (19 males and 19 females), aged between 2,5 and 17,6 years and diagnosed with posterior fossa tumours were assessed before and after surgery. Performance was assessed using a picture-naming task, Wordrace, measuring both... (More)

Background: Word finding - the ability to retrieve and produce appropriate words in response to prompts or visual stimuli - is impaired in some patients with a posterior fossa tumour. Yet, few studies use preoperative assessment as a baseline, and an in-depth linguistic analysis of tasks assessing word-finding ability remains limited. The current study aims to fill this knowledge gap by analysing pre- and postoperative word-finding ability and identifying its linguistic predictors. Method: 38 English-speaking patients (19 males and 19 females), aged between 2,5 and 17,6 years and diagnosed with posterior fossa tumours were assessed before and after surgery. Performance was assessed using a picture-naming task, Wordrace, measuring both accuracy and reaction times. These measures were interpreted in terms of their correlation with linguistic levels (i.e., lexical, semantic, phonological). Results: Patients exhibited a significant slowing in word-finding speed following surgery, while accuracy remained stable across assessment points. Despite this decline in speed, we did not find evidence for a change in the influence of psycholinguistic factors on word-finding ability in our sample. Lexical-semantic variables predicted word-finding speed, whereas accuracy was influenced only by lexical variables. Conclusion: The findings suggest that although general performance declined postoperatively, we did not find evidence in our sample of disruption to the underlying linguistic processes engaged during word-finding. However, the absence of control group limits interpretation, and future studies comparing patients with healthy controls may reveal more subtle differences. The study emphasises the importance of longitudinal assessment in patients with posterior fossa tumours and future studies should incorporate additional timepoints to examine the potential effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on word-finding over time.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Infratentorial neoplasms, Language disorders, Posterior fossa syndrome, Posterior fossa tumors, Psycholinguistics, Semantics
in
Cerebellum
volume
25
issue
3
article number
84
publisher
Informa Healthcare
external identifiers
  • pmid:42162445
  • scopus:105039703982
ISSN
1473-4222
DOI
10.1007/s12311-026-02026-x
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
aa6a40ba-2be6-4b61-bf66-4389b8df0d00
date added to LUP
2026-07-02 12:37:19
date last changed
2026-09-24 19:23:06
@article{aa6a40ba-2be6-4b61-bf66-4389b8df0d00,
  abstract     = {{<p>Background: Word finding - the ability to retrieve and produce appropriate words in response to prompts or visual stimuli - is impaired in some patients with a posterior fossa tumour. Yet, few studies use preoperative assessment as a baseline, and an in-depth linguistic analysis of tasks assessing word-finding ability remains limited. The current study aims to fill this knowledge gap by analysing pre- and postoperative word-finding ability and identifying its linguistic predictors. Method: 38 English-speaking patients (19 males and 19 females), aged between 2,5 and 17,6 years and diagnosed with posterior fossa tumours were assessed before and after surgery. Performance was assessed using a picture-naming task, Wordrace, measuring both accuracy and reaction times. These measures were interpreted in terms of their correlation with linguistic levels (i.e., lexical, semantic, phonological). Results: Patients exhibited a significant slowing in word-finding speed following surgery, while accuracy remained stable across assessment points. Despite this decline in speed, we did not find evidence for a change in the influence of psycholinguistic factors on word-finding ability in our sample. Lexical-semantic variables predicted word-finding speed, whereas accuracy was influenced only by lexical variables. Conclusion: The findings suggest that although general performance declined postoperatively, we did not find evidence in our sample of disruption to the underlying linguistic processes engaged during word-finding. However, the absence of control group limits interpretation, and future studies comparing patients with healthy controls may reveal more subtle differences. The study emphasises the importance of longitudinal assessment in patients with posterior fossa tumours and future studies should incorporate additional timepoints to examine the potential effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on word-finding over time.</p>}},
  author       = {{Ahmed, Rida and Reinders, Aliene and Svaldi, Cheyenne and Kingma, Annet and Persson, Karin and Thomsen, Ditte Boeg and Grønbaek, Jonathan Kjær and Laustsen, Aske Foldbjerg and Mathiasen, René and Pizer, Barry and Aquilina, Kristian and Fellows, Greg and Kamaly, Ian and Macarthur, Donald and Jonkers, Roel and Juhler, Marianne and de Aguiar, Vânia}},
  issn         = {{1473-4222}},
  keywords     = {{Infratentorial neoplasms; Language disorders; Posterior fossa syndrome; Posterior fossa tumors; Psycholinguistics; Semantics}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  publisher    = {{Informa Healthcare}},
  series       = {{Cerebellum}},
  title        = {{Language Processing in Posterior Fossa Tumour Patients : Psycholinguistic Insights into the Word-Finding Ability}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12311-026-02026-x}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s12311-026-02026-x}},
  volume       = {{25}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}