Contralateral cerebello-thalamo-cortical pathways with prominent involvement of associative areas in humans in vivo.

ABSTRACT: In addition to motor functions, it has become clear that in humans the cerebellum plays a significant role in cognition too, through connections with associative areas in the cerebral cortex. Classical anatomy indicates that neo-cerebellar regions are connected with the contralateral cerebral cortex through the dentate nucleus, superior cerebellar peduncle, red nucleus and ventrolateral anterior nucleus of the thalamus. The anatomical existence of these connections has been demonstrated using virus retrograde transport techniques in monkeys and rats ex vivo. In this study, using advanced diffusion MRI tractography we show that it is possible to calculate streamlines to reconstruct the pathway connecting the cerebellar cortex with contralateral cerebral cortex in humans in vivo. Correspondi

SUBMITTER: Palesi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4575696 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature