title: Manual dexterity correlating with right lobule VI volume in right-handed 14-year-olds.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dexterity is a fundamental skill in our everyday life. Particularly, the fine-tuning of reaching for objects is of high relevance and crucially coordinated by the cerebellum. Although neuronal cerebellar structures mediate dexterity, classical whole brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) has not identified structural correlates of dexterity in the cerebellum.
  
  
  METHODS
  Clusters of gray matter (GM) volume associated with the Purdue Pegboard Dexterity Test, a test of fine motor skills and complex upper limb movements, were identified in a cerebellum-optimized VBM analysis using the Spatially Unbiased Infratentorial (SUIT) toolbox in 65 healthy, right-handed 14-year-olds. For comparison, classical whole brain VBM was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cerebellum-optimized VBM indicated a significant positive correlation between manual dexterity and GM volume in the right cerebellum Lobule VI, corrected for multiple comparisons and non-stationary smoothness. The classical whole brain VBM revealed positive associations (uncorrected) between dexterity performance and GM volume in the left SMA (BA 6), right fusiform gyrus (BA 20) and left cuneus (BA 18), but not cerebellar structures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results indicate that cerebellar GM volumes in the right Lobule VI predict manual dexterity in healthy untrained humans when cerebellum-optimized VBM is employed. Although conventional VBM identified brain motor network areas it failed to detect cerebellar structures. Thus, previous studies might have underestimated the importance of cerebellum in manual dexterity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine Campus Mitte, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kühn
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romanowski
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schilling
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authors.lastname: Brühl
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authors.lastname: Büchel
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authors.lastname: Conrod
authors.forename: Katharina
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authors.lastname: Czech
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authors.forename: Herta
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authors.lastname: Flor
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authors.lastname: Garavan
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Häke
authors.forename: Bernd
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authors.forename: Nikolay
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authors.lastname: Lathrop
authors.forename: Eva
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authors.lastname: Loth
authors.forename: Katharina
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authors.lastname: Lüdemann
authors.forename: Catherine
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authors.lastname: Mallik
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Martinot
authors.forename: Carla
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authors.lastname: Palafox
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Poline
authors.forename: Jan
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authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.forename: Trevor W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Robbins
authors.forename: Michael N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Smolka
authors.forename: Frauke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nees
authors.forename: Bernadeta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Walaszek
authors.forename: Gunter
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authors.lastname: Schumann
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authors.lastname: Heinz
authors.forename: Jürgen
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authors.lastname: Gallinat
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic