Lesion-symptom mapping

Abstract

A traditional approach to studying cerebellar function is examining impairment in human subjects with cerebellar disease. High-resolution structural brain imaging coupled with tools that perform lesion-symptom mapping produced major advances in localization of function within the human cerebellum. Lesionsymptom mapping is also called lesion-behavior mapping and lesion-defi cit mapping. To localize function, patients should be included who have lesions restricted to the cerebellum. These patients are rare. Group sizes are commonly much smaller than in comparable studies with cerebral stroke. Methods will be discussed which are currently available to perform lesion-symptom mapping in patients with focal and degenerative cerebellar disease.