Consequences of cerebellar lesions at early and later ages: clinical relevance of animal experiments.

Animal experiments demonstrated that reactions of the brain after early lesions differ from those after lesions at adult age. Detailed knowledge on the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological consequences of brain lesions was obtained in humans and will be gained from lesion experiments in animals. Prerequisites for extrapolating animal data to the clinical situation are discussed: knowledge on the maturational stage at which the lesion occurs and the behavioral expression of the damaged neural system. The extensive remodelling after early unilateral cerebellar hemispherectomy and its consequences for behavioural development in the rat are presented and discussed.