The cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome may result from various cerebellar injuries. Although it is not exactly known which anatomical structures are involved, the fastigial nucleus has been thought to play a pivotal role according to recent studies. Here we investigate whether bilateral fastigial nucleus lesions in juvenile rats affect cognitive-associative and limbic related functions in adulthood. Furthermore, potential effects on the neuronal activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and local field coherence with the sensorimotor cortex (SMCtx) were evaluated. The fastigial nucleus was lesioned bilaterally by thermocoagulation via stereotaxically inserted electrodes in 23-day old male Sprague Dawley rats. Naïve and sham-lesioned rats (electrodes inserted above the nucleus and no electrical current applied) served as controls. As adults, all groups were tested for cognitive-associative function, social behavior, and anxiety. Thereafter, electrophysiological recordings were obtained under urethane anesthesia. Finally, lesions and recording sites were histologically verified. Spatial learning in a radial maze test and learning in an operant learning paradigm was disturbed in rats with fastigial lesions. Furthermore, in the elevated plus maze anxiety was enhanced, whereas social behavior was not affected. Electrophysiological recordings showed enhanced local field coherence between mPFC and SMCtx across all frequency bands. Impaired cognitive and affective functions together with enhanced coherence between mPFC and SMCtx after bilateral fastigial nucleus lesions indicate that the fastigial nucleus contribute to the development of the cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome and associated motor behavior.

小脑认知情感综合症可能是由于各种小脑损伤引起的。尽管尚不确切知道涉及哪些解剖结构，但根据最近的研究，认为小脑顶核起着举足轻重的作用。在这里，我们研究了成年大鼠的双侧小脑顶核损伤是否影响认知相关和边缘相关功能。此外，评估了对内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）的神经元活动以及与感觉运动皮层（SMCtx）的局部视野连贯性的潜在影响。通过立体定向插入的电极对23天大的雄性Sprague Dawley大鼠进行热凝，使双侧小脑顶核受到损伤。幼稚和假手术大鼠（电极插入细胞核上方且未施加电流）作为对照。成年后，所有组均接受了认知关联功能，社交行为和焦虑症的测试。此后，在氨基甲酸乙酯麻醉下获得电生理记录。最后，通过组织学证实病变和记录部位。在具有小脑皮损的大鼠中，径向迷宫测试中的空间学习和操作学习范式中的学习受到干扰。此外，在高架迷宫中，焦虑增强了，而社交行为没有受到影响。电生理记录显示，在所有频带上，mPFC和SMCtx之间的局部场相干性增强。