title: Decreased cerebellar-cerebral connectivity contributes to complex task performance.
abstract: The cerebellum's role in nonmotor processes is now well accepted, but cerebellar interaction with cerebral targets is not well understood. Complex cognitive tasks activate cerebellar, parietal, and frontal regions, but the effective connectivity between these regions has never been tested. To this end, we used psycho-physiological interactions (PPI) analysis to test connectivity changes of cerebellar and parietal seed regions in complex (2-digit by 1-digit multiplication, e.g., 12 × 3) vs. simple (1-digit by 1-digit multiplication, e.g., 4 × 3) task conditions ("complex - simple"). For cerebellar seed regions (lobule VI, hemisphere and vermis), we found significantly decreased cerebellar-parietal, cerebellar-cingulate, and cerebellar-frontal connectivity in complex multiplication. For parietal seed regions (PFcm, PFop, PFm) we found significantly increased parietal-parietal and parietal-frontal connectivity in complex multiplication. These results suggest that decreased cerebellar-cerebral connectivity contributes to complex task performance. Interestingly, BOLD activity contrasts revealed partially overlapping parietal areas of increased BOLD activity but decreased cerebellar-parietal PPI connectivity.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany curren@post.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Curren
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0125-9861
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Katz
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knops
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D008875:Middle Aged; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011601:Psychophysics; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: arithmetic; connectivity; fMRI; parietal lobe; psycho-physiological interactions