Does the cerebellum initiate movement?

Cerebellum

Departments of Neurobiology,, Washington University School Of Medicine, St Louis, MO, 63110, USA,

Published: February 2014

Opinion is divided on what the exact function of the cerebellum is. Experiments are summarized that support the following views: (1) the cerebellum is a combiner of multiple movement factors; (2) it contains anatomically fixed permanent focal representation of individual body parts (muscles and segments) and movement modes (e.g., vestibular driven vs. cognitive driven); (3) it contains flexible changing representations/memory of physical properties of the body parts including muscle strength, segment inertia, joint viscosity, and segmental interaction torques (dynamics); (4) it contains mechanisms for learning and storage of the properties in item no. 3 through trial-and-error practice; (5) it provides for linkage of body parts, motor modes, and motordynamics via the parallel fiber system; (6) it combines and integrates the many factors so as to initiate coordinated movements of the many body parts; (7) it is thus enabled to play the unique role of initiating coordinated movements; and (8) this unique causative role is evidenced by the fact that: (a) electrical stimulation of the cerebellum can initiate compound coordinated movements; (b) in naturally initiated compound movements, cerebellar discharge precedes that in downstream target structures such as motor cerebral cortex; and (c) cerebellar ablation abolishes the natural production of compound movements in the awake alert individuals.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12311-013-0506-7DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

body parts
16
coordinated movements
12
cerebellum initiate
8
compound movements
8
movements
5
cerebellum
4
initiate movement?
4
movement? opinion
4
opinion divided
4
divided exact
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!