Human Cerebellar Sub-millimeter Diffusion Imaging Reveals the Motor and Non-motor Topography of the Dentate Nucleus.
The reciprocal cortico-cerebellar loops that underlie cerebellar contributions to motor and cognitive behavior form one of the largest systems in the primate brain. Work with non-human primates has shown that the dentate nucleus, the major output nucleus of the cerebellum, contains topographically distinct connections to both motor and non-motor regions, yet there is no evidence for how the cerebellar cortex connects to the dentate nuclei in humans. Here we used in-vivo sub-millimeter diffusion imaging to characterize this fundamental component of the cortico-cerebellar loop, and identified a pattern of superior motor and infero-lateral non-motor connectivity strikingly similar to that proposed by animal work. Crucially, we also present first evidence that the dominance for motor connectivity observed in non-human primates may be significantly reduced in man - a finding that is in accordance with the proposed increase in cerebellar contributions to higher cognitive behavior over the course of primate evolution.
Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig , Sachsen, Germany.
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CJ
Steele
Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Sachsen, Germany.
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Anwander
Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig , Sachsen, Germany.
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Bazin
Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig , Sachsen, Germany.
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Trampel
Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig , Sachsen, Germany.
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Schaefer
Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig , Sachsen, Germany.
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Turner
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK.
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Ramnani
Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig , Sachsen, Germany.
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Villringer
D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002529:Cerebellar Nuclei / Q000502:physiology*; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D011323:Primates
cerebellum and cognition; cortico-cerebellar loop; dentate nucleus; motor and non-motor cerebellar white-matter connectivity