Speaker: Maedbh King

Affiliation: ICoN Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT

Title: Beyond the Neocortex: Exploring the Cerebellum's Contribution to Cognition

Abstract: 

Traditionally, the human cerebellum has been viewed as a motor structure. Over the last 30 years, however, anatomical, clinical and neuroimaging data have radically overturned this idea. We now know that large parts of the cerebellum are reciprocally connected to association regions of the neocortex. Moreover, patients with cerebellar lesions show perceptual, cognitive and emotional deficits. Perhaps most compelling, functional neuroimaging has led to a plethora of papers describing cerebellar activations associated with cognitive processes.

Despite recent advances, there remains great debate about how and what the human cerebellum uniquely contributes to cognitive function. In this talk, I detail a series of projects that make incremental steps towards understanding the cerebellum’s role in cognition. First, using a data-driven approach, I introduce novel neuroimaging methods that 1) detail the comprehensive functional organization of the human cerebellum and 2) characterize the functional mapping between the neocortex and the cerebellum. Then, I use these neuroimaging tools, along with patient studies, to test two theories of cerebellar function. In a multi-session neuroimaging study, I investigate the cerebellum’s unique contribution to the automation of cognitive processes, and in a neuropsychology study, I provide a falsifiable test of the internal model hypothesis through the lens of language processing. This combined approach offers a nuanced perspective on cerebellar function, with potential clinical implications for understanding both typical and atypical development.

Location: 46-3310

Zoom: https://mit.zoom.us/j/3473065359