Does the cerebellum contribute to mental skills?

Leiner, Henrietta C.; Leiner, Alan L.; Dow, Robert S.

doi:10.1037/0735-7044.100.4.443

Cited by 636 publications

(380 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…The cerebellum appears to enhance and sharpen precise timing of neural events and to promote the smooth control of rapid, stereotyped neural responses, regardless of whether it is processing sensory, motor, or cognitive signals (33)(34)(35)(36)(37). Neocortical regions with reciprocal cerebellar circuitry are summarized in Table 1.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

Weaver

2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

177

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Human brain evolution involved both neurological reorganization and an increase in overall brain volume relative to body mass. It is generally difficult to draw functional inferences about the timing and nature of brain reorganization, given that superficial brain morphology recorded on fossil endocasts is functionally ambiguous. However, the cerebellum, housed in the clearly delineated posterior cranial fossa, is functionally and ontologically discrete. The cerebellum is reciprocally connected to each of 14 neocortical regions important to human cognitive evolution. Cerebellar volume varies significantly relative to overall brain volume among mammalian orders, as well as within the primate order. There is also significant diachronic variation among fossil human taxa. In the australopithecines and early members of the genus Homo, the cerebral hemispheres were large in proportion to the cerebellum, compared with other hominoids. This trend continued in Middle and Late Pleistocene humans, including Neandertals and CroMagnon 1, who have the largest cerebral hemispheres relative to cerebellum volume of any primates, including earlier and Holocene humans. In recent humans, however, the pattern is reversed; the cerebellum is larger with respect to the rest of the brain (and, conversely, the cerebral hemispheres are smaller with respect to the cerebellum) than in Late Pleistocene humans. The cerebellum and cerebral hemispheres appear to have evolved reciprocally. Cerebellar development in Holocene humans may have provided greater computational efficiency for coping with an increasingly complex cultural and conceptual environment.human evolution ͉ Plio-Pleistocene hominins ͉ Upper Paleolithic transition P aleoneurologists agree that increased encephalization is an important dynamic of human brain evolution. However, brain evolution involved more than brain expansion. It also involved reorganization to support specific, uniquely human cognitive tasks, including those involved in linguistic processing and a highly developed facility for manufacturing and manipulating tools. Nevertheless, despite more than a century of effort, there is little consensus about how and when such reorganization occurred.One approach to exploring functional reorganization of the brain in humans has been the analysis of impressions of the brain's surface convolutions (sulci and gyri) on the inner table of the endocranium. However, endocranial markings are notoriously difficult to identify reliably (1, 2). Even where the impressions are fairly clear, taphonomic processes may distort the evidence. In addition, the functional correlates of the brain's surface convolutions, especially in fossils, are literally superficial. Cognitive functions occur through internal connections among brain regions, as well as through the distribution of neuroreceptors that cannot be detected by examining the surface of the brain, let alone from endocranial markings. Therefore, functional inferences based on sulcal patterns are problematic.Another approach to endocran...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

Weaver

2005

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

177

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“…There is an information-processing system relating to movement and cognitive actions, such as planning, reasoning, and emotion (Leiner et al, 1989). The cerebellum, known to be involved only in voluntary and involuntary motor control, also plays a major role in thought itself (Leiner et al, 1986); the resulting information-processing system may be essential for the manipulation of kinesthetic mind. In accord, it was posited that thinking is an advanced form of skilled behavior that evolved from earlier forms of flexible adaptation to the environment (see Barlett, 1958).…”

Section: Mind-brain-body Triad In Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Psychomotor Theory of Human Mind

Tan

2007

International Journal of Neuroscience

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This study presents a new theory to explain the neural origins of human mind. This is the psychomotor theory. The author briefly analyzed the historical development of the mind-brain theories. The close relations between psychological and motor systems were subjected to a rather detailed analysis, using psychiatric and neurological examples. The feedback circuits between mind, brain, and body were shown to occur within the mind-brain-body triad, in normal states, and psycho-neural diseases. It was stated that psychiatric signs and symptoms are coupled with motor disturbances; neurological diseases are coupled with psychological disturbances; changes in cortico-spinal motor-system activity may influence mind-brain-body triad, and vice versa. Accordingly, a psychomotor theory was created to explain the psychomotor coupling in health and disease, stating that, not the mind-brain duality or unity, but the mind-brain-body triad as a functional unit may be essential in health and disease, because mind does not end in the brain, but further controls movements, in a reciprocal manner; mental and motor events share the same neural substrate, cortical, and spinal motoneurons; mental events emerging from the motoneuronal system expressed by the human language may be closely coupled with the unity of the mind-brain-body triad. So, the psychomotor theory rejects the mind-brain duality and instead advances the unity of the psychomotor system, which will have important consequences in understanding and improving the human mind, brain, and body in health and disease.

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“…Evidence from PET and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) studies that argue cerebellar and motor cortex activations are characteristic of implicit stages of visuo-motor skill learning and that these activations decrease when the skill becomes explicit (Pascual-Leone et al 1994;Doyon et al 1996;Petersen et al 1998). Thus, it is possible that the speed of the trials, along with the novelty of the test items, created conditions requiring the cognitive flexibility that has been associated with the recruitment of the cerebellum (Leiner et al 1986;Kim et al 1994;Middleton and Strick 1994;Schmahmann and Pandya 1995;Karatekin et al 2000;Molinari et al 2002;Kelly and Strick 2003).…”

Section: Role Of the Cerebellum In Response Correctnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, a specific role for the cerebellum in higher-level cognition has been a matter of debate. Some submit that efferents from the dentate nucleus in the lateral cerebellum to lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9/46) via the red nucleus and mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus play a role in higher level cognition and cognitive flexibility (Leiner et al 1986;Kim et al 1994;Middleton and Strick 1994;Schmahmann and Pandya 1995;Karatekin et al 2000;Molinari et al 2002;Kelly and Strick 2003). A subset of reasoning studies report activations in the cerebellum but do not suggest a specific explanation for its role in the reasoning process (Rao et al 1997;Osherson et al 1998;Goel et al 2000;Dolan 2001, 2004;Blackwood et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influences of task difficulty and response correctness on neural systems supporting fluid reasoning

2006

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This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study examined neural contributions to managing task difficulty and response correctness during fluid reasoning. Previous studies investigate reasoning by independently varying visual complexity or task difficulty, or the specific domain. Under natural conditions these factors interact in a complex manner to support dynamic combinations of perceptual and conceptual processes. This study investigated fluid reasoning under circumstances that would represent the cognitive flexibility of real life decision-making. Results from a mixed effects analysis corrected for multiple comparisons indicate involvement of cortical and subcortical areas during fluid reasoning. A 2 · 2 ANOVA illustrates activity related to variances in task difficulty correlated with increased blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD)-signal in the left middle frontal gyrus (BA6). Activity related to response correctness correlated with increased BOLD-signal in a larger, distributed system including right middle frontal gyrus (BA6), right superior parietal lobule (BA7), left inferior parietal lobule (BA40), left lingual gyrus (BA19), and left cerebellum (Lobule VI). The dissociation of function in left BA 6 for task difficulty and right BA6 for response correctness and the involvement of a more diffuse network involving the left cerebellum in response correctness extends knowledge about contributions of classic motor and premotor areas supporting higher level cognition.

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Does the cerebellum contribute to mental skills?

Cited by 636 publications

References 89 publications

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

Reciprocal evolution of the cerebellum and neocortex in fossil humans

The Psychomotor Theory of Human Mind

The influences of task difficulty and response correctness on neural systems supporting fluid reasoning

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