Drepper J, Timmann D, Kolb F P, Diener H C
Department of Neurology, University of Essen, Germany.
Brain. 1999 Jan;122 ( Pt 1):87-97. doi: 10.1093/brain/122.1.87.
In recent decades it has become clear that the cerebellum is involved in associative motor learning, but its exact role in motor learning as such is still controversial. Recently, a contribution of the cerebellum to different cognitive abilities has also been considered, but it remains unclear whether the cerebellum contributes to cognitive associative learning. We compared nine patients with an isolated cerebellar degenerative disease in a cognitive associative learning task with 10 controls. Patients and controls were matched for age, sex, handedness, level of education, intelligence and capabilities of visual memory. The subjects were asked to learn the association between six pairs of colours and numerals by trial and error. Additionally, a simple reaction time and a visual scanning test were conducted in order to control for the influence of motor performance deficits in cerebellar patients. In comparison with the controls, it took the patients significantly longer to learn the correct associations between colours and numerals, and they were impaired in recognizing them later on. Two patients showed no associative learning effect at all. Neither the simple reaction time nor the visual scanning time correlated substantially with the results of associative learning. Therefore, motor-associated disabilities are unlikely to be the reason for the learning deficit in cerebellar patients. Our results suggest that the cerebellum might contribute to motor-independent processes that are generally involved in associative learning.
近几十年来，小脑参与联合运动学习这一点已变得清晰，但它在运动学习中的具体作用仍存在争议。最近，小脑对不同认知能力的贡献也受到了关注，但小脑是否有助于认知联合学习仍不明确。我们将9例患有孤立性小脑退行性疾病的患者与10名对照者进行了一项认知联合学习任务的比较。患者和对照者在年龄、性别、利手、教育程度、智力和视觉记忆能力方面进行了匹配。受试者被要求通过反复试验来学习六对颜色和数字之间的关联。此外，还进行了简单反应时和视觉扫描测试，以控制小脑患者运动表现缺陷的影响。与对照组相比，患者学习颜色和数字之间正确关联的时间明显更长，并且随后在识别这些关联时也受到了损害。两名患者根本没有表现出联合学习效应。简单反应时和视觉扫描时间与联合学习结果均无显著相关性。因此，与运动相关的残疾不太可能是小脑患者学习缺陷的原因。我们的结果表明，小脑可能有助于一般参与联合学习的与运动无关的过程。
