Affiliations: Cognitive/Behavioral Neurology Unit, Massachusetts
General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA | Laboratory for Neuroanatomy and Cerebellar
Neurobiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA, USA | Ataxia Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts
General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA | Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
and Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Note: [] Corresponding author: Catherine J. Stoodley, D. Phil., Cognitive
/ Behavioral Neurology Unit, Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General
Hospital, 175 Cambridge Street, Suite 340, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Tel.: +1 617
726 3669; Fax: +1 617 724 7836; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Neuroimaging studies report cerebellar activation during both motor
and non-motor paradigms, and suggest a functional topography within the
cerebellum. Sensorimotor tasks activate the anterior lobe, parts of lobule VI,
and lobule VIII, whereas higher-level tasks activate lobules VI and VII in the
posterior lobe. To determine whether these activation patterns are evident at a
single-subject level, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
during five tasks investigating sensorimotor (finger tapping), language (verb
generation), spatial (mental rotation), working memory (N-back), and emotional
processing (viewing images from the International Affective Picture System).
Finger tapping activated the ipsilateral anterior lobe (lobules IV-V) as well
as lobules VI and VIII. Activation during verb generation was found in right
lobules VII and VIIIA. Mental rotation activated left-lateralized clusters in
lobules VII-VIIIA, VI-Crus I, and midline VIIAt. The N-back task showed
bilateral activation in right lobules VI-Crus I and left lobules VIIB-VIIIA.
Cerebellar activation was evident bilaterally in lobule VI while viewing
arousing vs. neutral images. This fMRI study provides the first proof of
principle demonstration that there is topographic organization of motor
execution vs. cognitive/emotional domains within the cerebellum of a single
individual, likely reflecting the anatomical specificity of cerebro-cerebellar
circuits underlying different task domains. Inter-subject variability of motor
and non-motor topography remains to be determined.
Keywords: Cerebellum, topography, functional MRI, cognition, motor
