Eyeblink conditioning indicates cerebellar abnormality in dyslexia.

There is increasing evidence that cerebellar deficit may be a causal factor in dyslexia. The cerebellum is considered to be the major structure involved in classical conditioning of the eyeblink response. In a direct test of cerebellar function in learning, 13 dyslexic participants (mean age 19.

Fear conditioned changes of heart rate in patients with medial cerebellar lesions.

Fear conditioned changes of heart rate and skin conductance responses were investigated in patients with medial cerebellar lesions. A classical conditioning paradigm with a tone as the conditioned stimulus (CS) and an electrical shock as the unconditioned stimulus (US) was tested on five patients with medial cerebellar lesions due to surgery for astrocytoma and five controls. The CS preceded the US by 5900 ms and coterminated with the US.

Role of the striatum and the cerebellum in motor skill acquisition.

Motor skill acquisition was investigated in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) or cerebellar dysfunction using two sensory-guided tracking tasks. The subjects had to learn to track a visual target (a square) on a computer screen by moving a joystick under two different conditions. In the unreversed task, the horizontal target movements were semi-predictable and could be anticipated.

Learning and self-regulation of slow cortical potentials in older adults.

Two groups of subjects, aged 20-28 and 50-64, respectively, matched for health status and verbal abilities, learned to control their slow cortical potentials (SCP) in a feedback paradigm by producing, on command, SCP shifts in either positive or negative direction. Both groups were able to differentiate significantly between the positivity task and the negativity task, with the differentiation score being only slightly (and not significantly) lower in older than in younger subjects. In all conditions, however, significantly more negative brain responses were obtained in older than in younger subjects.

Learned maintenance of pain: muscle tension reduces central nervous system processing of painful stimulation in chronic and subchronic pain patients.

The effect of level of muscle tension on the perception of painful stimuli was assessed in 13 chronic back pain patients, 14 subjects at high risk for chronic back pain, and 14 matched healthy controls. Subjects received painful intracutaneous electric stimuli to the forearm or the lower back while they produced either high or low muscle tension levels. Visual analog scale (VAS) ratings of acute pain were obtained after each trial.