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| Paolo Mortara |
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Dept. Neuroscience University of Turin; Via Cherasco 15 10126, Torino, Italy
e-mail: paolo_mortara@libero.it |
Poster Presentation: |
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| CEREBELLUM AND COGNITION IN THE DEGENERATIVE PATHOLOGIES OF THE CEREBELLUM. |
| Mortara P., Orsi L., Franco A., Boghi A., Caroppo P., Manzone C., Avidano F., Giuffrida M., Schul D. and Mutani R. | |
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Dept. Neuroscience University of Turin; Via Cherasco 15 10126, Torino, Italy |
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| For years the studies of the cerebellum have been focused on its role in motor control. Recently researchers begun to investigate the involvement of the cerebellum in cognitive functions, an argument that is currently an object of intense debate within the Neuroscience community. Studies with functional Neuroimaging have shown activation of the cerebellum during the imagination of a movement, the application of somatosensorial stimuli, the acquisition of motor and language skills, during the elaboration of working memory and during the planning and the formation of new strategies. In this study, which was part of a wider research project with the purpose to deepen an aspect still debated, we had investigated the cognitive functions of patients affected by Dominant Autosomal Spinocerebellar Eredoataxias, which are pathologies characterized by the atrophy of the cerebellum and its connections. All patients have been examined in the Center for the Ataxic Syndromes of the Department of Neuroscience – Turin University.
We have examined 30 patient with Dominant Autosomal Spinocerebellar Eredoataxia of which 21 were genetically defined (SCA1, SCA2, SCA6, SCA7, SCA8) and 9 with sporadic cases. All patients have been submitted to a test battery with the purpose to evaluate the global intellectual functions, mnemonic functions, executive functions (planning, abstract reasoning, working memory and verbal fluency) and visuo-spatial functions (elementary perceptive aspects, visuo-constructive and visuo-spatial memory). From the results analysis emerged the presence of low IQ values without clear dementia and compromised executive functions in all groups of patients. Furthermore a deficit of the Long-term verbal Memory was noticed in all patients. The greater deficit has been noticed in the SCA1 subgroup and in the not genetically determined subgroup (sporadic forms). The results of our study seem to support the hypothesis of a cerebellar participation in intellectual, executive functions and visuo-spatial manipulation processes particularly in the perceptive and visuo-constructive aspects and in different aspects of spatial sequences learning as shown by the clear long-term spatial memory deficit in most of our patients and in particular.
According to literature data, our results show how the cerebellum is involved in cognitive activity concerning "motor thought" (imagination, planning and spatial cognition, the perception of temporal intervals regarding movement) and perhaps also in the regulation of those affective aspects and thoughts that might define personality. |
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