Cerebellar contribution to spatial event processing: involvement in procedural and working memory components

Abstract

Spatial function is one of the cognitive functions altered in the presence of cerebellar lesions. We investigated the cerebellar contribution to the acquisition of spatial procedural and working memory components by means of a radial maze. To establish whether a cerebellar lesion would cause a deficit in solving the radial maze, a first experiment was carried out by using a full-baited maze procedure in different experimental groups, with or without cerebellar lesion and with or without pretraining. Non-pretrained hemicerebellectomized (HCbed) animals exhibited impaired performances in all (motor, spatial and procedural) task aspects. Pre-trained HCbed animals performed similarly to control animals in the task aspects linked to the processing of spatial and procedural factors. To distinguish procedural from working memory components, a forced-choice paradigm of the radial maze was used in the second experiment. Non-pretrained HCbed rats continued to make a lot of errors and show severe perseverative tendencies, already observed in the first experiment, supporting a specific cerebellar role in acquiring new behaviours and in modifying them in relation to the context. Interestingly, hindered from putting the acquired explorative patterns into action and compelled to use only working memory abilities, the pretrained HCbed group exhibited a dramatic worsening of performance. In conclusion, the present findings demonstrate that cerebellar damage induces a specific behaviour in radial maze tasks, characterized by an inflexible use of the procedures (if indeed any procedure was acquired before the lesion) and by a severe impairment in working memory processes.

The What and How of Observational Learning

“…The remarkable result regarding perseverative errors was found after cerebellar rTMS when the new sequence had to be detected and after DLPFC rTMS when both sequences were performed. Perseverations are distinctive symptoms linked to prefrontal dysfunction (Hauser, 1999), and interestingly, they are also elicited by cerebellar damage (Mandolesi, Leggio, Graziano, Neri, & Petrosini, 2001;Schmahmann & Sherman, 1997;Botez-Marquard & Botez, 1993). This finding is in line with the view that cerebellar lesions might provoke ''frontal-like'' cognitive deficits, supported by clinical reports of severe problems in initiation/perseveration and cognitive planning in cerebellar patients (Hauser, 1999;Schmahmann & Sherman, 1997;Appollonio, Grafman, Schwartz, Massaquoi, & Hallett, 1993;Grafman et al, 1992;el-Awar et al, 1991).…”

Steroids, sex and the cerebellar cortex: implications for human disease

“…Moreover, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated cerebellar activity during attentional tasks in humans, and that cerebellar activation during such tasks differs between healthy controls and autistic patients (4). Animal studies have revealed deficits in working memory in animals with cerebellar lesion (5). Taken together, these findings demonstrate that it is no longer accurate to think of the cerebellum as simply a motor control center, and make less surprising the frequent finding that cerebellar pathology is often associated with complex neuropsychological diseases.…”

Abnormal Brain Density in Victims of Rape with PTSD in Mainland China: A Voxel-Based Analysis of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

“…We found that the density of cerebellum, which plays an important role in motor and cognition (Mandolesi et al, 2001;Bischoff-Grethe et al, 2002;Vokaer et al, 2002;Claeys et al, 2003;Guenther et al, 2005;Allen et al, 2005;Konarski et al, 2005;Schmahmann & Caplan, 2006;Gianaros et al, 2007;Schweizer et al, 2007), was increased in patients with PTSD. Combination of early studies about structural abnormal (Leroi et al, 2002;Liszewski et al, 2004;Bellis & Kuchibhatla, 2006) and functional abnormal (Bonne et al, 2003;Molina et al, 2010;Gianaros et al, 2007;Liotti et al, 2000;Phan et al, 2002) in the cerebellum in PTSD patients, the finding is consistent with our hypothesis that the cerebellum was involved in the neuropathology of cognitive processing and emotional processing in PTSD patients.…”

“…Gao et al found that the lateral cerebellar output (dentate) nucleus is not activated by the control of movement per se, but is strongly engaged during passive and active sensory tasks (Gao et al, 1996). Recent research of the cerebellum's contribution to cognitive processing and emotional processing have increased enormously, showing that the cerebellum is responsible for sensory perception, learning, memory, attention, linguistic, emotional control and conflict resolution processing (Mandolesi et al, 2001;Bischoff-Grethe et al, 2002;Vokaer et al, 2002;Claeys et al, 2003;Guenther et al, 2005;Allen et al, 2005;Konarski et al, 2005;Schmahmann & Caplan, 2006;Gianaros et al, 2007;Schweizer et al, 2007). Anatomical studies revealed that via the thalamus, the cerebellum interacts with multiple areas of the prefrontal cortex and subcortex limbic lobe (Middleton & Strick, 2001;Zhu et al, 2006).…”