In 1891, Luigi Luciani published his famous monograph on the cerebellu
m and formulated his triad of the cerebellar symptoms: atonia, astheni
a and astasia, which explained all troubles provoked by cerebellar les
ions; later he added a fourth sign, dysmetria, In spite of the fact th
at it was advanced in a pre-electrophysiological period, Luciani's int
erpretation of the cerebellar role in many motor functions survives mo
re than a century later and his terminology has entered the routine of
the neurological examination. With the modern knowledge of cerebellar
circuitries, we can state that Luciani rightly pointed out the role o
f the cerebellum in regulating postural tone and muscular force, and t
hat conversely he was wrong in denying cerebellar influence in co-ordi
nation of multi-joint movements and the somatotopic localizations in t
he cerebellar cortex and nuclei. In spite of this, Luciani's work repr
esents a milestone In cerebellar physiology.