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Preoperative and postoperative analysis of visual and auditory memory in children with cerebellar tumors

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Abstract

Motivated by the extensive clinical and experimental evidence that links the cerebellum to cognitive processes, we analyzed the auditory and visual memory of nine children with cerebellar tumors. Five patients had midline lesions and four had cerebellar hemispheric tumors. The patients were tested before and after surgery. One of the patients was also tested at 4 and 24 months after surgery. A third group constituted by four children, sibling of some of the patients, served as control. Statistically significant differences (P< 0.05) were found in the test of auditory memory, in which children with cerebellar tumors made a higher number of errors than their normal counterparts. Surgery performed according standard techniques did not increase significantly the number of errors in any of the tested categories. Location of the tumor (hemispheric vs midline) was not a determinant of the performance of the children. The patient tested up to 2 years after surgery demonstrated a progressive improvement in the performance of visual and auditory memory tasks. Our results provide further evidence that the cerebellum plays a role in the integration of auditory stimuli.

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Author notes

  1. Jorge A. Lazareff

    Present address: Division of Neurosurgery, School of Medicine, Center for Health Sciences, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, 90024-6901, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez, Marquez 162 Col Doctores, 06720, Mexico, D. F., Mexico

    Jorge A. Lazareff

  2. Department of Neurophysiology (Psycho Acoustics), Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez, Marquez 162 Col Doctores, 06720, Mexico, D.F., Mexico

    Eduardo Castro-Sierra

Authors
  1. Jorge A. Lazareff
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  2. Eduardo Castro-Sierra
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Lazareff, J.A., Castro-Sierra, E. Preoperative and postoperative analysis of visual and auditory memory in children with cerebellar tumors. Child's Nerv Syst 12, 81–86 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00819501

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00819501

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