title: Inability to Process Negative Emotions in Cerebellar Damage: a Functional Transcranial Doppler Sonographic Study.
abstract: Recent studies have implicated the cerebellum as part of a circuitry that is necessary to modulate higher order and behaviorally relevant information in emotional domains. However, little is known about the relationship between the cerebellum and emotional processing. This study examined cerebellar function specifically in the processing of negative emotions. Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography was performed to detect selective changes in middle cerebral artery flow velocity during emotional stimulation in patients affected by focal or degenerative cerebellar lesions and in matched healthy subjects. Changes in flow velocity during non-emotional (motor and cognitive tasks) and emotional (relaxing and negative stimuli) conditions were recorded. In the present study, we found that during negative emotional task, the hemodynamic pattern of the cerebellar patients was significantly different to that of controls. Indeed, whereas relaxing stimuli did not elicit an increase in mean flow velocity in any group, negative stimuli increased the mean flow velocity in the right compared with left middle cerebral artery only in the control group. The patterns by which mean flow velocity increased during the motor and cognitive tasks were similar within patients and controls. These findings support that the cerebellum is part of a network that gives meaning to external stimuli, and this particular involvement in processing negative emotional stimuli corroborates earlier phylogenetic hypotheses, for which the cerebellum is part of an older circuit in which negative emotions are crucial for survival and prepare the organism for rapid defense.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy.|Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lupo
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Elio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Troisi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy.|Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesca R
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Chiricozzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy.|Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Clausi
authors.affiliation: Neurological and Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation Department A, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Molinari
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy. maria.leggio@uniroma1.it.|Ataxia Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179, Rome, Italy. maria.leggio@uniroma1.it.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leggio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Blood flow velocity; Cerebellum; Emotional task; Focal cerebellar lesion; Middle cerebral artery