title: Reduced self-motion perception in patients with midline cerebellar lesions.
abstract: Vestibular input to the cerebellum mediates balance and eye movement control. Recent functional MRI studies, however, show midline cerebellar activation during visually induced illusions of self-rotation, thus suggesting that the cerebellum may also contribute to self-motion perception. Here, we investigate self-motion perception directly in patients with vermal (or midline) cerebellar ataxia. Participants were rotated in the dark (90 degrees /s velocity steps) and the time constant of decay of the postrotational angular velocity sensation was measured. The perceptual vestibular time constant in patients was considerably reduced (7.8 s) with respect to control values in this (25.6 s) and several previous studies. In addition to the processing of vestibular signals for motor control, the cerebellar vermis is involved in vestibular processing of self-motion perception.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Imperial College London, UK. a.bronstein@imperial.ac.uk
authors.forename: Adolfo M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bronstein
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Grunfeld
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Faldon
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okada
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002524:Cerebellar Ataxia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012399:Rotation; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology