Functional Topography of the Human Cerebellum Revealed by Functional Neuroimaging Studies

Abstract

Functional imaging studies in healthy subjects report cerebellar activation during a wide range of tasks, from motor execution (finger tapping, motor learning, smooth pursuit eye movements) to higher-level cognitive tasks (Tower of London, working memory paradigms, verbal fluency) in which motor responses are eliminated or controlled for. The anatomical connections between the cerebellum, spinal cord, and sensorimotor and association areas of the cerebral cortex suggest a functional topography exists within the human cerebellum, such that different cerebellar regions are part of distributed spinocerebellar and cerebro-cerebellar circuits. This concept is supported by data from functional imaging studies, in which regional activation patterns differ for sensorimotor vs. cognitive and affective task paradigms. Here these neuroimaging data are reviewed and both cross-task comparisons and within-task topography are considered. The evidence indicates that cerebellar activation patterns are related to the specific demands of a given task, and the localization of the activation patterns reflects the engagement of different cerebro-cerebellar circuits.

Consensus Paper: Language and the Cerebellum: an Ongoing Enigma

“…The theory that the cerebellum operates as an essential modulator of higher-level cerebral functions, including language and affect currently attracts much attention of the scientific community, but yet no consensus exists about the exact role and contributions of the cerebellum to the cognitive and affective domain [252]. Due to its uniform neuroanatomical structure and its dense connections with the supratentorial association areas via cerebrocerebellar pathways (corticopontinepontocerebellar-cererebellothalamic-thalamocortical), the cerebellum is considered a functional entity that contributes in a unique and general way to information processing (universal cerebellar transform, [240, 241, 253–255]).…”

Disrupted neural activity in unilateral vascular pulsatile tinnitus patients in the early stage of disease: Evidence from resting-state fMRI

“…The cerebellum is anatomically and functionally connected with the limbic regions (Hui et al, 2005) and hypothalamus/mammillary bodies (Dietrichs, 1984). The cerebellar vermis plays an important role in cognitive and emotional processes (Schmahmann and Caplan, 2006) and is connected with limbic/paralimbic regions (Stoodley and Schmahmann, 2009;Stoodley et al, 2010). In addition to the vermis, the right cerebellum posterior lobe showed decreased rCBF during residual inhibition in patients with non-pulsatile tinnitus (Osaki et al, 2005) and in subjects with aversive sound influence (Mirz et al, 2000).…”

Cerebellum and Timing

“…Generally, the cerebellar activation is centered around lobules V-VIII and is usually ipsilateral (see reviews in Lewis and Miall 2003a;Stoodley and Schmahmann 2009). When the temporal pattern must be held across a delay period prior to the response, the activation is more bilateral (Kawashima et al 2000;Penhune et al 1998;Bengtsson et al 2005), similar to that seen during perceptual timing (described below).…”