title: Motion perception deficits from midline cerebellar lesions in human.
abstract: Although visual motion processing is commonly thought to be mediated solely by visual cortical areas, this human lesion study suggests that the cerebellum also has a role. We found motion direction discrimination deficits in a group of patients with acute midline cerebellar lesions. Unlike normals and patients with hemispheric cerebellar lesions, these patients with midline lesions were unable to discern a global motion vector in a local stochastic motion display. This resembles the perceptual defect reported following cortical area MT lesions in primates. This motion perception deficit may result from damage to a cerebellar mechanism involved in perceptual stabilization. Disruption of this comparator mechanism is sufficient to produce a severe motion perception deficit even though cortical visual processing mechanisms are still intact.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City 52242.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nawrot
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rizzo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011698:Pursuit, Smooth