Cognitive deficits from a cerebellar tumour: a historical case report from Luria's Laboratory

In 1964 an original case report from A.R. Luria's Laboratory of Neuropsychology was published in Cortex, being one of the first to draw a link between cerebellum and cognition, by highlighting the manifestation of 'pseudo-frontal' symptoms resulting from a cerebellar tumour. The findings of Luria and his team seem more consistent with modern views about cerebellar interactions with the frontal lobe and its contributions to behaviour than the views prevalent at the time of publication. The paper was originally submitted in Russian, and translated into Italian for its publication by Cortex. However, Cortex did not preserve the original manuscript in Russian. With the passage of time, and available only to the Italian readership, this case report inevitably fell into obscurity. Hence, we present a translation in English based on the published Italian version of the manuscript and discuss it in the context of Luria's general thinking about information processing in the brain and our current understanding of cortico-cerebellar system. The publication of this article gives readers an opportunity to consider the substantial influence of Soviet neuropsychology on the field internationally under Luria's leadership in the 1960s. It also shows that time is the best judge of ones scientific endeavours, and what may seem implausible today might prove to be valid and worthy of exploration tomorrow.