Cerebellar dysfunctions of temporal processing in the seconds range in hu mans

THE roles of the basal ganglia and cerebellum in timing remain subject to debate. It has been suggested that temporal range may dissociate them, since cerebellar research has focused on intervals of < 1 s, compared with many seconds used in much basal ganglia research. Here we show increased but scalar variability of time estimates in patients with focal lesions of the lateral cerebellar cortex and nuclei when trained to remember durations in the seconds range, compared with patients with lesions of the mesial cerebellum and vermis. This distortion is discussed on the basis of previously reported cerebellar deficits in different time ranges and contrasted to distortions occurring in patients with basal ganglia lesions performing similar tasks over similar time ranges. NeuroReport 9:3907-3912 (C) 1998 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.