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Title
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Cognitive and affective disturbances following focal cerebellar damage in adults: a neuropsychological and SPECT study
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Author
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Abstract
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| The traditional view on cerebellar functioning has recently been challenged by results fromneuroanatomical, neuroimaging and clinical studies. In this contribution, eighteen patients with primary cerebellar lesions (vascular: n ¼ 13; neoplastic: n ¼ 5) were systematically investigated by means of an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Fifteen patients (83%) presented with a broad variety of cognitive and linguistic deficits following cerebellar damage. Disturbances of attention (72%), executive functioning (50%) and memory (50%) were most commonly found. Analyses of our results tend to support the hypothesis of a lateralization of cognitive modulation within the cerebellum, the right cerebellar hemisphere being associated with logical reasoning and language processing and the left cerebellum mediating right-hemispheric functions including attentional and visuo-spatial skills. In addition, nine patients (50%) presented with frontal-like behavioural and affective alterations. In an attempt to determine the working-mechanism underlying cerebellarinduced cognitive and affective disturbances, all patients were investigated by means of quantified Tc-99m-ethylenecysteine dimer (ECD) single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT) studies. From a semiological point of view, damage to the cerebellum can cause a broad spectrum of clinically significant cognitive and affective disturbances. From a pathophysiological point of view, quantified SPECT data, reflecting the phenomenon of cerebello-cerebral diaschisis, support the functional impact of the cerebellar lesion on cortical functioning through disruption of cerebello-cerebral connections. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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Cortex. - Milano
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Publication
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Milano
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2010
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ISSN
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0010-9452
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Volume/pages
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46
:7
(2010)
, p. 869-879
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ISI
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000279069200006
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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