Cerebellum

Intro:
Lesion in cerebellum:
 Could cause ataxia
 Movement sequence becomes fractured
 Difficulty to perform fast/repetitive movements
 Prolong reaction times
 Movements performed with low precision and quality

Anatomy:
Deep cerebellar nuclei:
 Buried into the core
 Right along the roof of the 4th ventricle
 Dentate nucleus: connected to cerebrocerebellum
 Interposed nuclei: connected to spinocerebellum
 Fastigial nucleus: connected to vermis

Outer cortex:

Cerebellar peduncles:
 Superior, middle and inferior
 3 layers of white matter
 Superior
o gets information out of the cerebellum
 Middle
o largest of them all
o receives messages from the pons
 Inferior
o mostly inputs from spinal cord

Information processing in the cerebellum:

 Multisensory center
 Computes for error correction
 Integrates executive commands and sensory feedback
o Compares anticipatory “feed-forward” loop and “feed-back loop”
o Realtime correction of our performance
 Through experiencing errors, we can adjust our movements and minimalize
those errors
 No direct output to lower motor neurons
 Interacts with thalamic nuclei
Peduncles:
 Connections with the rest of the CNS
 Three large pathways, called peduncles

Superior cerebellar peduncle:

 Almost entirely efferent
 Neurons come from deep cerebellar nuclei
 Axons go to motor nuclei of the thalamus
 From there they go to the upper motor neurons in primary motor cortex (M1)
and premotor cortices
 Also project directly to the Superior Colliculus
 Orients movement of heads and eyes

Middle cerebellar peduncle:

 Afferent pathway to the cerebellum

 Most of the cells are in the contralateral pons (form the pontine nuclei)

Inferior cerebellar peduncle:

 Smallest but most complex

 Multiple afferent and efferent neurons
o Afferent from
 Vestibular nuclei
 Spinal cord
 Brainstem tegmentum
o Efferent to
 Vestibular nuclei
 Reticular formation
Cerebrocerebellum:

 By far the largest part

 Receives input from the cerebral cortex
 Regulation of highly skilled movements
 Planning and execution of complex spatial and temporal patterns
o for example typing
 Also important for speech

Spinocerebellum:
 Receives input directly from the spinal cord
 Lateral parts control movement in distal muscles (extremities)

Vermis:
 Most median part
 Controls movement in proximal muscles
 Also involved in eye movement

Vestibulocerebellum:
 Includes the flocculus and nodulus
 Receives input from the vestibular nuclei in the brainstem
 Controls the vestibulo-ocular reflex
 Controls posture and balance

Inputs into the cerebellum:

1. Cerebral cortex
 One of the largest inputs to the cerebellum
 Major destination is cerebrocerebellum
 Synapse on ipsilateral neurons in the pontine nuclei
o Information from almost all of cortex and also Superior Colliculus
 Axons in the pontine nuclei cross the midline
 Enter the contralateral cerebellum via the middle peduncle
 Signals originating from one cerebral hemisphere are sent to the contralateral
cerebellar hemisphere
2. Spinal cord/vestibular nuclei
 Axons from vestibular nuclei project to the vestibulocerebellum
 Axons from the spinal cord and medulla (external cuneate nucleus) project to
the spinocerebellum
 Proprioceptive neurons from the face are sent (via the mesencephalic
trigeminal nucleus) to the spinocerebellum
 This leads to understanding of position and motion of the body
 Additional visual and auditory information from the brainstem nuclei
 Remain ipsilateral as they enter through the inferior cerebellar peduncle
 Cerebellum analyzes ipsilateral information about body position and external
space