The role of the human cerebellum in short- and long-term habituation of postural responses

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of the human cerebellum in short-term (STH) and long-term habituation (LTH) of postural responses to repeated platform perturbations. Ten cerebellar patients and ten age- and sex-matched healthy controls participated. Twenty backward platform translations were applied on each of 5 consecutive days. Changes of postural response size within each day were assessed to determine STH and changes across days to determine LTH. Both controls and cerebellar patients showed a significant reduction of postural response size within each day (i.e. STH). No significant reduction of postural response size was observed across days (i.e. no LTH). Both controls and cerebellar patients, however, showed a tendency of response size to increase across days suggesting long-term sensitization. The amount of changes within and across days did not significantly differ between groups. The present findings suggest that changes of postural response size to repeated perturbations do not depend upon the integrity of the cerebellum.