The Cerebellum Flashcards
What happens when the cerebellum is damaged?
It would lead to impairments of motor control and posture because main outside of cerebellum are parts of the motor system
What is the anatomy of the cerebellum?
It is at the back of the brain
It has two hemispheres that are separated by a vermis
Each hemisphere has 3 lobes
The anterior,posterior and flocculondular lobe
Each of the lobes has folia on the surface of the cerebellum
Each lobe is separated by a primary fissure (the posterior and anterior lobe)
What is the purpose of the cerebellum?
It will modify information of motor commands from the descending pathways to make movement more adaptive and accurate
What are the functions of the cerebellum?
Maintainence of balance and posture by adjusting Postural muscles
Coordinate voluntary movements and fine tuning conscious and subconscious movements
Motor learning
Cognitive function
Involved in balance,locomotion and posture
What is the cognitive function of the cerebellum?
Recognizing and predicting the sequence of events during complex movements and also plays a role in problem solving and word associations
What does it mean that the cerebellum is a comparator?
Cerebellum campares the intended movement (movement you thought of from the descending supraspinal motor signals and the movement that is happening in the limbs (to the ascending affarent
And the Cerebellum will correct if there is a problem through the descending pathway
The Cerebellum coordinates this movement to make it accurate and smooth
What is the Cerebellum comparitive function?
Motor cortex sends action potentials down to the lmns in the spinal cord then the action potentials will inform the cerebellum of intended movement
Action potentials from lmns are then sent to the skeletal muscles causing them to contract
Prioprioceptive signals from the skeletal muscles are sent to the cerebellum to inform about the status of the muscles and structures being moved during contraction and then the cerebellum will relay information to the spinal cord and compare movement from motor cortex to the proprioceptive signals of the muscles and joints
Action potentials from the cerebellum will modify stimulation to spinal cord from motor cortex to lmns
Then action potentials from the cerebellum are sent to motor cortex which modify motor activity
What are the cerebellum tracts?
Shorter tracts and longer tracts
What is the purpose of the shorter cerebellum tracts?
They conduct impulses from neuron cell bodies that are located in the cerebellum cortex to neurons whose dendritic and cell bodies make up nuclei in the interior of the cerebellum
What is the purpose of longer tracts?
Conducts impulses to and from the cerebellum
What are the 3 pairs of penduncles?
Inferior-makes up tracts into the cerebellum from medulla and spinal chord
middle- made up of tracts into cerebellum from the Pons
and superior cerebellar penduncles-made up of tracts from the dental nuclei in the cerebellum through red nucleus of mid brain to thalamus
What is the dentate nuclei?
It is a pair of cerebellar nuclei that is located in each hemisphere and it is connected with thalamus and motor areas of cerebral cortex by tracts through the tracts cerebellar impulses influence the motor cortex and motor cortex influences the cerebellum
What are the two major parts of the cerebellum?
Cerebellar deep nuclei -output structures of the cerebellum
And they contain the cerellar cortex which has most of the neurons
What are the divisions of the cerebellum?
Posteorolateral fissure-separating flocculonodualar lobe from corpus cerebelli
And primary fissure
Separating corpus cerebelli into posterior and anterior lobe
What are the 3 major functional subdivisions of the cerebellum?
Vestibulocerebellum
Spinocerebellum
Cerebrocerebellum
