Search

Aim: To investigate whether the cerebellum could participate in social cognition (SC)., Method: General neuropsychological tests, executive tests (EF), social cognition tests, which assess the ability to infer other peoples mental states, and the Beck Depression Inventory were given to 10 non-demented patients with isolated cerebellar degenerative disease, and to 10 healthy controls matched for sex, age, and years of education. ANOVA and correlation coefficients were employed for the statistical analysis., Results: Patients within the cerebellar group were significantly impaired (p

Objective: To compare executive functions (EF) in non-demented mild to moderate Parkinson's disease (PD) (Hoehn and Yahr < or =3) and pure degenerative cerebellar disease (CD) in order to evaluate the relative contribution and differential role of basal ganglia and cerebellum in those functions., Method: 14 patients with PD and 14 patients with CD matched by sex, education, disease's duration and MMSE were selected. A standardized neuropsychological battery and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) were administered. Z scores were compared for both groups through t-test for independent samples were used., Results: The cerebellar group showed significant lower performance in measures of attention and EF, with a significant increase in both perseverative and non perseverative errors during the WCST. On the other hand the PD group showed a selective increase of non perseverative errors, without reaching significant between group difference., Conclusion: The CD group appears to have greater deficits in EF with a pattern of prefrontal dysfunction.