The cerebellar-related cognitive function is sensitive to aging: implications for early detection

Background Accumulating evidence demonstrated that the cerebellum contributes to a wide range of sensorimotor and cognitive functions. However, the relationship between cerebellar function and cognitive abilities in normal aging populations remains unclear. Methods The present cross-sectional study tested cerebellar-related cognitive changes across middle to late adulthood using the Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome (CCAS) scale and a perceptual serial reaction time (SRT) task. Participants were divided into three groups: early-middle-aged adults ( N = 18, 30–45 years), late-middle-aged adults ( N = 19, 46–57 years), and older adults ( N = 18, 60–78 years). Results Although all participants were identified as cognitively healthy by the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), older adults showed significant impairments in the CCAS scale, especially in semantic and phonemic fluency, category switching, digit span backward as well as cube drawing/copy. In the perceptual SRT task, older adults responded slower than their counterparts, reflecting age-related impairments in sensorimotor integration efficiency. However, there were no age-related group differences in learning new procedural knowledge. Importantly, participants with poorer CCAS performance demonstrated slower response speed and lower accuracy in the perceptual SRT task. Discussion The current results indicate a dissociation between general cognitive scores screened by MMSE and cerebellar-specific cognitive impairments. Furthermore, as the cerebellum plays a critical role in both sensorimotor and cognitive domains, the current study highlight the importance of incorporating screening tools which are sensitive to cerebellar functions in aging research.