Cerebellar circuits, timing, and cognition

摘要 小脑与大脑皮层紧密相连，使其能够有力地调节各种认知网络。 小脑调节额叶皮质的具体机制尚不清楚。在神经精神疾病中 如精神分裂症和自闭症，工作记忆、注意力、推理和时间的缺陷伴随着 小脑结构和功能异常目前还没有有效的治疗认知 神经精神疾病中的功能障碍。了解小脑对额叶回路的调制可能会导致新的 靶向小脑治疗人类疾病中的认知功能障碍。例如，小脑经颅 磁刺激对改善精神分裂症患者的认知功能障碍有效。我们的目标是了解 小脑如何编码关键认知事件的时间，以了解小脑刺激如何影响 认知和额叶皮层活动。我们将确定小脑外侧核和小脑皮质的贡献 通过研究这些区域如何编码时间依赖性神经元活动来确定关键认知事件的时间。我们将 确定小脑刺激是否可以纠正功能失调的额叶皮层活动，挽救时间和认知 性能此外，我们将描述长期变化的表现，额叶皮层可塑性， 小脑-额叶回路从拟议的实验结果将提供基本的机制洞察到 小脑在认知中的作用，并可能促进小脑刺激作为精神分裂症和其他脑 疾病 !

ABSTRACT The cerebellum is densely connected to the cerebral cortex allowing it to powerfully modulate diverse cognitive networks. The specific mechanisms by which the cerebellum modulates the frontal cortex are unknown. In neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia and autism, deficits in working memory, attention, reasoning, and timing are accompanied by cerebellar abnormalities – both structural and functional. There are currently no effective treatments for cognitive dysfunction in neuropsychiatric disease. Understanding cerebellar modulation of frontal circuits may lead to novel treatments targeting the cerebellum for cognitive dysfunction in human disease. For instance, cerebellar transcranial magnetic stimulation has been effective in improving cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Our goal is to understand how the cerebellum encodes timing for key cognitive events in order to understand how cerebellar stimulation influences cognition and frontal cortical activity. We will determine the lateral cerebellar nuclear and cerebellar cortical contribution to timing of key cognitive events by investigating how these regions encode time-dependent neuronal activity. We will determine if cerebellar stimulation can correct dysfunctional frontal cortical activity, rescuing timing and cognitive performance. Additionally, we will characterize long-term changes to performance, frontal cortical plasticity, and cerebellar-frontal circuitry. Results from the proposed experiments will provide fundamental mechanistic insight into the role of the cerebellum in cognition and may advance cerebellar stimulation as a therapy for schizophrenia and other brain diseases. !