Mental retardation cerebellum

Clinical findings include mental retardation, severe metabolic acidosis, and evidence of a spastic quadripare-sis and cerebellar disease. Some patients develop normally until late childhood, when a progressive loss of intellectual function became appreciated. Patients also may manifest a mild hemolysis. Pathological changes have included atrophy of the cerebellum and lesions in the cortex and thalamus. There is no specific therapy. 

The types of nervous system effects described in the Minamata outbreak included mental retardation retention of primitive reflexes cerebellar symptoms dysarthria hyperkinesia hypersalivation atrophy and hypoplasia of the cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, and granule cell layer of the cerebellum dysmyelination of the pyramidal tracts and an abnormal neuronal cytoarchitecture. It has been suggested that the widespread damage involved derangement of basic developmental processes, such as neuronal migration (Choi et al. 1978 Matsumoto et al. 1965) and neuronal cell division (Sager et al. 1983). 

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