title: Effects of lesions to the cerebellar vermis and hemispheres on timing and counting in rats.
abstract: The effects of lesions to the cerebellum on numerical and temporal discrimination were examined in rats using a psychophysical choice procedure. Lesions to the cerebellar hemispheres but not the cerebellar vermis produced performance deficits in a numerical discrimination task (2-8 events) and a milliseconds temporal discrimination task (0.2-0.8 s). However, temporal discriminations in the seconds range (2-8 s) were unaffected by either type of lesion. Using W. H. Meck and R. M. Church's (1983) mode-control model of timing and counting, these findings suggest that damage to the cerebellar hemispheres influences a source of constant variability (e.g., switch processes) because constant variability is a prominent source of error during both milliseconds timing and counting but is masked by other sources of variability when timing longer durations (>2 s).
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. j.breukelaar@Laurel.ocs.mg.edu.au
authors: J W
authors: JW
authors: Breukelaar
authors: J C
authors: JC
authors: Dalrymple-Alford
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002525:Cerebellar Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012153:Retention, Psychology / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*