Discussion
decreased cerebellar excitability, SCA, fatigue, cerebellar disease, Fatigue
SPINOCEREBELLAR ATAXIA 3, CEREBELLAR DEGENERATION, CEREBELLAR DISORDERS, CEREBELLAR DISEASE
We investigated the role of the cerebellum in fatigue by examining whether cerebellar excitability is modulated after a fatiguing task and whether it relates to fatigue perception. We found that decreased cerebellar excitability correlated with milder fatigue perception such that the larger the reduction in CBI, the smaller the increase in fatigue perception. While correlation does not imply causation, we interpret the current results to suggest that changes in cerebellar excitability after a fatiguing task contribute to modulate fatigue perception. Our results align with the idea that, under fatiguing conditions, deactivation of cortical and subcortical areas calibrates the sensorimotor state to help maintain homeostasis (Fatigue is thought to arise from the inability to maintain bodily homeostasis (The cerebellum plays a key role in optimizing motor control, kinesthesia, and learning (A seemingly inconsistent result is the observation that cerebellar excitability is uncorrelated with decreased force capacity while simultaneously correlated with increased motor variability. However, these are two different performance measures, in which the cerebellum may play a different role. Evidence from cerebellar disorders, such as spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) Type 6, a cerebellar disease characterized by “pure” cerebellar degeneration (Fatigue is a highly prevalent but understudied symptom in cerebellar disorders, such as SCA (Our observations trigger an important question: what processes is the cerebellum modulating to minimize fatigue? Growing evidence suggests that interindividual differences in interoceptive abilities (e.g., accuracy, sensibility, and awareness) (Mild inflammatory processes increase fatigue perception (