Cerebellum
Older news items (pre-2010) brought over from the old website
March 2009
Alcoholics’ brains maintain language skills at a cost
Despite the damage done by alcoholism to the frontal lobes and cerebellum, areas involved in language processing, alcoholics' language skills appear to be relatively spared from alcohol's damaging effects. A new study of 12 alcoholic males and 12 healthy controls suggests that alcoholics develop compensatory mechanisms to maintain their language skills despite alcohol's damages. The comparable performance on an auditory language task between the two groups was underlain by different neural activity (specifically, the alcoholic group showed greater activity in the left middle frontal gyrus, the right superior frontal gyrus, and the cerebellar vermis). It seems likely that this wider activity comes at the expense of other tasks, thus reducing their ability to multitask.
Chanraud-Guillermo, S. et al. 2009. Imaging of Language-Related Brain Regions in Detoxified Alcoholics. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Published Online 25 March
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/ace-tbm031209.php
October 2006
Brain scans reveal 'chemobrain' no figment of the imagination
A PET study of 21 women who had undergone surgery to remove breast tumors five to 10 years earlier found that the 16 who had been treated with chemotherapy regimens near the time of their surgeries to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence had specific alterations in activity of frontal cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia compared to 5 breast cancer patients who underwent surgery only, and 13 control subjects who did not have breast cancer or chemotherapy. The alterations suggested the chemotherapy patients’ brains were working harder to recall the same information.
Silverman, D.H.S. et al. 2006. Altered frontocortical, cerebellar, and basal ganglia activity in adjuvant-treated breast cancer survivors 5–10years after chemotherapy. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, Published online ahead of print 29 September
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uoc--bn092906.php
July 2005
Human cerebellum and cortex age in very different ways
Analysis of gene expression in five different regions of the brain's cortex has found that brain changes with aging were pronounced and consistent across the cortex, but changes in gene expression in the cerebellum were smaller and less coordinated. Researchers were surprised both by the homogeneity of aging within the cortex and by the dramatic differences between cortex and cerebellum. They also found that chimpanzees' brains age very differently from human brains; the findings cast doubt on the effectiveness of using rodents to model various types of neurodegenerative disease.
Fraser, H.B., Khaitovich, P., Plotkin, J.B., Pääbo, S. & Eisen, M.B. 2005. Aging and Gene Expression in the Primate Brain. PLoS Biology, 3 (9), e274.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/hu-hca072805.php
June 2005
How sleep improves memory
While previous research has been conflicting, it does now seem clear that sleep consolidates learning of motor skills in particular. A new imaging study involving 12 young adults taught a sequence of skilled finger movements has found a dramatic shift in activity pattern when doing the task in those who were allowed to sleep during the 12 hour period before testing. Increased activity was found in the right primary motor cortex, medial prefrontal lobe, hippocampus and left cerebellum — this is assumed to support faster and more accurate motor output. Decreased activity was found in the parietal cortices, the left insular cortex, temporal pole and fronto-polar region — these are assumed to reflect less anxiety and a reduced need for conscious spatial monitoring. It’s suggested that this is one reason why infants need so much sleep — motor skill learning is a high priority at this age. The findings may also have implications for stroke patients and others who have suffered brain injuries.
Walker, M.P., Stickgold, R., Alsop, D., Gaab, N. & Schlaug, G. 2005. Sleep-dependent motor memory plasticity in the human brain.Neuroscience, 133 (4) , 911-917.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-06/bidm-ssh062805.php
January 2005
Imaging reveals brain abnormalities in ADHD children
A new type of brain imaging called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has provided some suggestive evidence about brain abnormalities in children diagnosed with ADHD. Abnormalities were found in the white-matter pathways in the frontal cortex, basal ganglia, brain stem and cerebellum—areas that are involved in regulating attention, impulsive behavior, motor activity, and inhibition, which are all related to ADHD symptoms.
This research was presented at the 2004 annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.htm3?article_id=218392460
February 2004
Mentally, sleep may be as active a state as waking state
Why do we sleep? A question we keep asking. Recent research leads us another step in the road. The study has identified a number of genes upregulated specifically during sleep – at least as many as are turned on while we are awake. These "sleep genes" largely fall into four categories: genes involved in synaptic plasticity (supporting the view that sleep aids memory consolidation); genes underlying translation (supporting observations that protein synthesis increases during sleep); genes regulating membrane and vesicle trafficking; and genes for synthesizing cholesterol (which may be crucial for synapse formation and maintenance, which could, in turn, enhance neural plasticity (the brain's ability to change and learn)). The study also found, to the researchers’ surprise, that the cerebellum showed largely the same pattern of gene-expression during sleep as the cortex.
Cirelli, C., Gutierrez, C.M. & Tononi, G. 2004. Extensive and divergent effects of sleep and wakefulness on brain gene expression. Neuron, 41, 35-43.
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2004/feb/research2_040216.html
November 2003
Growing evidence cerebellum involved in language
An imaging study of children with selective problems in short term phonological memory and others diagnosed with specific language impairment (and matched controls) found that those with selective STPM deficits and those with SLI had less gray matter in both sides of the cerebellum compared to the children in the control groups. This supports growing evidence that the cerebellum, an area of the brain once thought to be involved only in the control of movement, also plays a role in processing speech and language.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/sfn-ssb111103.php
September 2003
Study of alcoholics reveals connection between cerebellum and prefrontal cortex
Two functions commonly compromised by chronic alcoholism are executive functions (such as problem solving, putting things in order, working memory, doing multiple tasks at once) and balance (the ability to walk a straight line or stand on one foot, especially with eyes closed or in the dark). Executive functions are primarily processed in the prefrontal cortex, while balance and postural stability are functions of the cerebellum. Previous studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex and regions of the cerebellum are especially vulnerable to the effects of chronic alcoholism. Although these areas are spatially far apart (the former in the frontal lobes, the latter in the hindbrain), they are connected in a variety of ways, most particularly through the pons and the thalamus. An imaging study of 25 nonamnesic alcoholic men suggests that these connections may compound the damaging effects of alcohol on these brain regions, and that the cerebellum, through these connections, can exert a significant effect on functions of the prefrontal cortex.
Sullivan, E.V. 2003. Compromised Pontocerebellar and Cerebellothalamocortical Systems: Speculations on Their Contributions to Cognitive and Motor Impairment in Nonamnesic Alcoholism. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research,27(9),1409-1419.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-09/ace-amc090803.php
August 2002
Motor skill training may help children with fetal alcohol exposure
The disorders associated with fetal exposure to alcohol are a leading cause of mental retardation and developmental delay. Research with rats has looked at the effect of motor skill training on the development of rats similarly exposed to alcohol at a critical stage of their prenatal development. Those rats trained in increasingly difficult challenges involving motor skills were found to develop 20% more synapses in the cerebellum than the rats that did not train, even though they had the expected 30% loss of Purkinje cells. The research brings hope that, despite the damage done to the motor function, it may be possible to rehabilitate these deficits if caught early enough.
Klintsova, A.Y., Scamra, C., Hoffman, M., Napper, R.M.A., Goodlett, C.R., & Greenough, W.T. 2002. Therapeutic effects of complex motor training on motor performance deficits induced by neonatal binge-like alcohol exposure in rats: - II. A quantitative stereological study of synaptic plasticity in female rat cerebellum. Brain Research, 937 (1-2), 83-93.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-08/uoia-cpl080702.php
June 2002
New research into motor skills distinguishes between learning and performance
The cerebellum has long been associated with motor skills and coordination. A new study has shown that, although it is active when we are engaging in movement, it is not active when we are learning new motor skills. The findings suggest the cerebellum is involved in the improvement in performance gained through practice, rather than the initial learning of the motor sequence. This research may lead to a better understanding that ultimately sees the development of better rehabilitation strategies for patients with cerebellar disease. It also points to an intriguing difference between learning a motor skill and improving it.
Seidler, R.D., Purushotham, A., Kim, S.-G., Ugurbil, K., Willingham, D. & Ashe, J. 2002. Cerebellum Activation Associated with Performance Change but Not Motor Learning. Science, 296 (5575), 2043-6.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-06/vrcs-sop061302.php
May 2002
Cerebellum implicated in remembering emotions
The part of the brain known as the cerebellum has been most closely associated with motor coordination skills. Experiments with rats suggest that it may also be involved in remembering strong emotions, in particular, in the consolidation of long-term memories of fear.
Sacchetti, B., Baldi, E., Lorenzini, C.A. & Bucherelli, C. 2002. Cerebellar role in fear-conditioning consolidation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 99 (12), 8406-8411.