Cerebellar Functional Anatomy: a Didactic Summary Based on Human fMRI Evidence

Abstract

The cerebellum is relevant for virtually all aspects of behavior in health and disease. Cerebellar findings are common across all kinds of neuroimaging studies of brain function and dysfunction. A large and expanding body of literature mapping motor and non-motor functions in the healthy human cerebellar cortex using fMRI has served as a tool for interpreting these findings. For example, results of cerebellar atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease in caudal aspects of Crus I/II and medial lobule IX can be interpreted by consulting a large number of task, resting-state, and gradient-based reports that describe the functional characteristics of these specific aspects of the cerebellar cortex. Here, we provide a concise summary that outlines organizational principles observed consistently across these studies of normal cerebellar organization. This basic framework may be useful for investigators performing or reading experiments that require a functional interpretation of human cerebellar topography.