Cognition in cerebellar degeneration: correlations with lateral neocerebellar dysfunction and atrophy

大脑主要协调中心（小脑）的疾病曾被认为只会损害运动技能。然而，越来越多的报告显示，它对思维，特别是对心理灵活性和合理规划的影响。这些认知障碍可能会阻碍康复。如果其他家庭成员没有意识到这些困难是疾病的一部分，而且是患者无法控制的，那么这些困难也常常在患者家庭中造成紧张。我们将测试这种思维困难在不同遗传形式的不协调患者中有多常见，并确定思维的哪些方面受到特别影响。我们将看到运动不协调的严重程度是否预示着思维中断的程度，因为小脑的不同但相邻的部分似乎参与了每一个。我们还将使用磁脑扫描（MRI）来检查这些疾病中的思维问题不是由大脑其他部分的萎缩引起的。

Diseases of the main brain coordination centre (the cerebellum) were once thought to impair only movement skills. However, effects on thinking, and especially on mental flexibility and rational planning, are increasingly being reported. These cognitive difficulties may hinder rehabilitation. They also often cause tension within the sufferers' families if other family members are not aware that such difficulties are part of the disease and beyond the sufferers' control. We will test how common such thinking difficulties are in patients with different inherited forms of incoordination, and determine what aspects of thinking are particularly affected. We will see whether the severity of movement incoordination predicts the extent of thinking disruption, as different but neighbouring parts of the cerebellum seem to be involved in each. We will also use magnetic brain scans (MRI's) to check that the thinking problems are not caused by shrinkage of other parts of the brain in these diseases.