Cerebelum

Cerebellum Granule Cells Shown To Play Cognitive Role

 James Anderson  March 20, 2017

Neurons within the cerebellum respond to and learn to anticipate rewards, Stanford researchers report. The finding is a first step toward a much more exciting future for the cerebrum’s largely overlooked little brother, and one that could open up new avenues of research for neuroscientists interested in the roots of cognition.

Scientists had assumed that the cerebellum helped control muscles mostly because of what happened when it got injured. Senior author Liqun Luo, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, professor of biology and member of Stanford Bio-X and the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, said:

“If you have disruption of the cerebellum, the first thing you see is a motor coordination defect.”/.../