Continuous manipulation of mental representations is compromised in cerebellar degeneration

ABSTRACT

Here we test the hypothesis that the cerebellum aids in the dynamic transformation of mental representations. We report a series of neuropsychological experiments comparing the performance of individuals with cerebellar degeneration (CD) on cognitive tasks that either entail continuous, movement-like mental operations or more discrete mental operations. In visual cognition, individuals with CD exhibited an impaired rate of mental rotation, an operation hypothesized to require the continuous manipulation of a visual representation. In contrast, individuals with CD showed a normal processing rate when scanning items in visual working memory, an operation hypothesized to require the maintenance and retrieval of representations. In mathematical cognition, individuals with CD were impaired at single-digit addition, an operation hypothesized to require iterative manipulations along a mental number-line; this group was not impaired on arithmetic tasks requiring memory retrieval (e.g., single-digit multiplication). These results, obtained in tasks from two disparate domains, suggest one potential constraint on the contribution of the cerebellum to cognitive tasks. This constraint may parallel the cerebellum’s role in motor control, involving coordinated dynamic transformations in a mental workspace.