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Prolonged P3 latency and decreased brain perfusion in cerebellar degeneration
H Tachibana1, K Kawabata, Y Tomino
1The Fifth Department of Internal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, Nishinomiya, Japan.
Objectives:
To clarify the underlying mechanism of cognitive impairments in patients with cerebellar degeneration using event-related potentials (ERPs) and regional brain perfusion measurement.
Materials And Methods:
The P3 latency of ERPs was measured during a visual discrimination task in 15 patients with idiopathic late-onset cerebellar ataxia (ILOCA) and 10 age-matched control subjects. Regional brain perfusion was measured by single photon emission computed tomography using N-isopropyl-p[123I] iodoamphetamine.
Results:
The mean P3 latency was longer in the patients than in controls. The patients showed lower perfusion in the frontal cortex and in the cerebellum than control subjects. There was a significant correlation between perfusion of the frontal cortex and cerebellum.
Conclusions:
The results indicate that patients with ILOCA exhibit slowing of cognitive information processing and suggest that its cognitive slowing may be due to a disruption of neural circuits between the cerebellum and the frontal cortex.