Cerebellar ataxia | EPFL Graph Search

Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?

Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.

Cerebellar ataxia is a form of ataxia originating in the cerebellum. Non-progressive congenital ataxia (NPCA) is a classical presentation of cerebral ataxias. Cerebellar ataxia can occur as a result of many diseases and may present with symptoms of an inability to coordinate balance, gait, extremity and eye movements. Lesions to the cerebellum can cause dyssynergia, dysmetria, dysdiadochokinesia, dysarthria and ataxia of stance and gait. Deficits are observed with movements on the same side of the body as the lesion (ipsilateral). Clinicians often use visual observation of people performing motor tasks in order to look for signs of ataxia. Damage to the cerebellum causes impairment in motor skills and can cause nystagmus. Almost a third of people with isolated, late onset cerebellar ataxia go on to develop multiple system atrophy. The cerebellum's role has been observed as not purely motor. It is combined with intellect, emotion and planning. Cerebellar deficits can be estimated using clinical rating scales, such as SODA for ocular deficits. There are many causes of cerebellar ataxia including, among others, gluten ataxia, autoimmunity to Purkinje cells or other neural cells in the cerebellum, CNS vasculitis, multiple sclerosis, infection, bleeding, infarction, tumors, direct injury, toxins (e.g., alcohol), genetic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases (such as progressive supranuclear palsy and multiple system atrophy). Gluten ataxia accounts for 40% of all sporadic idiopathic ataxias and 15% of all ataxias. Primary auto-immune ataxias (PACA) lack diagnostic biomarkers. Cerebellar ataxias can be classified as sporadic, autosomal recessive, X-linked, autosomal dominant and of mitochondrial origin. "For many years, it was thought that postural and balance disorders in cerebellar ataxia were not treatable. However, the results of several recent studies suggest that rehabilitation can relieve postural disorders in patients with cerebellar ataxia...

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (22)

Related people (1)

Related units (7)

Related concepts (3)

Related lectures (4)

Spinocerebellar ataxia

Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) is a progressive, degenerative, genetic disease with multiple types, each of which could be considered a neurological condition in its own right. An estimated 150,000 people in the United States have a diagnosis of spinocerebellar ataxia at any given time. SCA is hereditary, progressive, degenerative, and often fatal. There is no known effective treatment or cure. SCA can affect anyone of any age. The disease is caused by either a recessive or dominant gene.

Ataxia

Ataxia (from Greek α- [a negative prefix] + -τάξις [order] = "lack of order") is a neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements that can include gait abnormality, speech changes, and abnormalities in eye movements, that indicates dysfunction of parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum. These nervous system dysfunctions occur in several different patterns, with different results and different possible causes.

Cerebellum

The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as it or even larger. In humans, the cerebellum plays an important role in motor control. It may also be involved in some cognitive functions such as attention and language as well as emotional control such as regulating fear and pleasure responses, but its movement-related functions are the most solidly established.

The Cerebellum and Cognitive Function: Anatomical Evidence from a Transdiagnostic Sample

Farnaz Delavari, Charles Laidi

Multiple lines of evidence across human functional, lesion, and animal data point to a cerebellar role, in particular of crus I, crus II, and lobule VIIB, in cognitive function. However, a mapping of distinct facets of cognitive function to cerebellar stru ...

New York2023

A Biallelic Truncating Variant in the TPR Domain of GEMIN5 Associated with Intellectual Disability and Cerebral Atrophy

Nicolas Jean Philippe Guex

GEMIN5 is a multifunctional RNA-binding protein required for the assembly of survival motor neurons. Several bi-allelic truncating and missense variants in this gene are reported to cause a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by cerebellar atrophy, i ...

2023

Late post‐natal neurometabolic development in healthy male rats using 1 H and 31 P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

Rolf Gruetter, Cristina Ramona Cudalbu, Dunja Simicic, Veronika Rackayová, Guillaume Donati

Brain metabolism evolves rapidly during early post‐natal development in the rat. While changes in amino acids, energy metabolites, antioxidants or metabolites involved in phospholipid metabolism have been reported in the early stages, neurometabolic change ...

2021

The Microcircuits of Striatum in Silico NX-450: Computational neurosciences: biophysics

Explores the reconstruction of a full-scale mouse striatal cellular level model to integrate and interpret striatal data.

Cerebellum: Neural Control of Movement BIO-311: Neuroscience

Explores the neural control of movement, focusing on the cerebellum's role in motor learning and coordination.

Nervous System Anatomy BIO-320: Morphology I

Covers the anatomy of the nervous system, including spinal cord and cranial nerves.