Cerebellar contribution to locomotor behavior: A neurodevelopmental perspective

Aaron Sathyanesan, Vittorio Gallo, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Available online 30 April 2018, ISSN 1074-7427, doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2018.04.016.

The fact that clinicians do not wait till the infant or child reaches the adult stage to intervene therapeutically and measure behavioral outcomes should prompt neuroscientists to rethink how behavior is typically analyzed in pre-clinical animal models of neurodevelopmental disorders.
One of the behavioral hallmarks of early cerebellar injury or childhood onset genetic ataxia is abnormal gait and postural control. Children affected with diseases such as Friedreich’s Ataxia and Ataxia Telangiectasia display gait deficits due to inter- and intra-limb miscoordination, highlighting the importance of cerebellar circuitry to gait control during development.
The biggest advantage of using the Erasmus Ladder is the integration of measuring locomotor performance such as gait dynamics and coordination, as well as an associative, adaptive, conditioned learning paradigm to study cerebellar function

Cerebellar contribution to locomotor behavior: A neurodevelopmental perspective