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Motor Rehabilitation of Cerebellar Disorders

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Essentials of Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders

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Abstract

Disorders of the cerebellum affect motor functions in a variety of ways and can lead to significant and severe limitations in activities of daily living. Possibilities for medical interventions are still rare and limited to specific diseases and symptoms. Furthermore, motor rehabilitation for patients suffering from cerebellar damage—in particular by degenerative cerebellar disease—is challenging, since the cerebellum is known to play an important role in the execution as well as for adaptation and (re)-learning of movements.

This chapter briefly reviews the state-of-the-art on motor rehabilitation in cerebellar disease. Recent studies indicate that even in the case of degenerative cerebellar diseases intensive and continuous motor training can reduce ataxia symptoms and increase motor performance relevant to daily living.

In addition, current studies in the area of motor control and motor learning—in combination with modern imaging techniques—in cerebellar disease are described. These results offer promising perspectives for a deeper understanding of remaining motor learning capacities in cerebellar disease, and thus might help in the future to optimize motor rehabilitation for individual patients.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section Computational Sensomotorics, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Winfried Ilg

  2. Department of Neurology and Center for Translational Neuro- and Behavioral Sciences (C-TNBS), University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany

    Dagmar Timmann

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  1. Winfried Ilg
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  2. Dagmar Timmann
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Correspondence to Winfried Ilg .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Department, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Donna L. Gruol

  2. Department of Integrative Physiology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan

    Noriyuki Koibuchi

  3. Service de Neurologie, CHU-Charleroi, Charleroi, Belgium

    Mario Manto

  4. Clinical Translational Research, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy

    Marco Molinari

  5. Ataxia Center, Cognitive Behavioral Neurology Unit, Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar Neurobiology, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Jeremy D. Schmahmann

  6. Department of Physiology, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzho, China

    Ying Shen

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Ilg, W., Timmann, D. (2023). Motor Rehabilitation of Cerebellar Disorders. In: Gruol, D.L., Koibuchi, N., Manto, M., Molinari, M., Schmahmann, J.D., Shen, Y. (eds) Essentials of Cerebellum and Cerebellar Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15070-8_107

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