Cerebellar involvement in executive control
Abstract
The cerebellum has long been considered to be mainly involved in motor function. In the last 20 years, evidence from neuroimaging studies and from investigations of patients with cerebellar lesions has shown that the cerebellum plays a role in a range of cognitive functions. While cerebellar contributions have been shown for learning and memory, the cerebellum has also been linked to higher order cognitive control processes frequently referred to as executive functions. Although it is widely accepted that the cerebellum contributes to cognitive processing, the nature of cerebellar involvement is not well understood. The present paper focuses on the role of the cerebellum in executive processing, reviewing findings derived from neuroimaging studies or from studies investigating deficits related to cerebellar dysfunction. As executive functions cannot be considered as a unitary concept, special emphasis is put on cerebellar contributions to different aspects of executive control such as working memory, multitasking or inhibition. Referring to models derived from motor control, possible mechanisms of cerebellar involvement in executive processing are discussed. Finally, methodological problems in assessing executive deficits in general and in assessing the cerebellar contribution to executive processing in particular are addressed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cerebellum may modulate executive functions, likely through reciprocal connections to cortical regions.
“Mounting evidence from human neuroimaging and acquired lesion studies suggests that the cerebellum may modulate executive functions [274], likely by means of reciprocal connections to cortical regions [26].”
From Consensus Paper: Pathological Role of the Cerebellum in Autism (2012) · cites this paper as [274]
Cites
Response suppression, initiation and strategy use following frontal lobe lesions
Burgess, P. W., & Shallice, T. (1996) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/0028-3932(95)00104-2 · Cited by 854 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Comparable deficits of PFC lesion patients are observed across a range of different inhibition tasks (34,35), and a link between the lateral PFC and the The cerebellum and executive control 185”
BackgroundBURGESS, P. W., ALDERMAN, N., FORBES, C., COSTELLO, A., M-A.COATES, L., DAWSON, D. R., ANDERSON, N. D., GILBERT, S. J., DUMONTHEIL, I., & CHANNON, S. (2006) · Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society · doi:10.1017/s1355617706060310 · Cited by 663 · see citing works
Anatomic Organization of the Basilar Pontine Projections from Prefrontal Cortices in Rhesus Monkey
Schmahmann, J. D., & Pandya, D. N. (1997) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.17-01-00438.1997 · Cited by 461 · see citing works
Prefrontal modulation of visual processing in humans
Barceló, F., Suwazono, S., & Knight, R. T. (2000) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/73975 · Cited by 374 · see citing works
Cortico-subcortical contributions to executive control
Heyder, K., Suchan, B., & Daum, I. (2004) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2003.12.010 · Cited by 263 · see citing works
Self-citationMotor projections to the basis pontis in rhesus monkey
Schmahmann, J. D., Rosene, D. L., & Pandya, D. N. (2004) · Journal of Comparative Neurology · doi:10.1002/cne.20286 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Control Functions of the Frontal Lobes. Modularity of the Central-Supervisory System?
Godefroy, O., Cabaret, M., Petit-Chenal, V., Pruvo, J.-P., & Rousseaux, M. (1999) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(08)70782-2 · Cited by 141 · see citing works
Müller, N. G., Machado, L., & Knight, R. T. (2002) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/08989290260138582 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Functional topography in the human cerebellum: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies
STOODLEY, C., & SCHMAHMANN, J. (2009) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.08.039 · Cited by 2,183 · see citing works
Cerebellum and nonmotor function
Strick, P. L., Dum, R. P., & Fiez, J. A. (2009) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.060407.125606 · Cited by 1,777 · see citing works
Niendam, T. A., Laird, A. R., Ray, K. L., Dean, Y. M., Glahn, D. C., & Carter, C. S. (2012) · Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience · doi:10.3758/s13415-011-0083-5 · Cited by 1,700 · see citing works
“…analysis across domains showed that executive functions are indeed associated with increased activity in this common cognitive control network (Bellebaum & Daum, 2007; Botvinick et al., 2001; Carter et al., 1999; Cohen et al., 2000; D'Esposito & Postle, 2002; Yarkoni et al., 2005), which…”
BackgroundDistinct cerebellar contributions to intrinsic connectivity networks
Habas, C., Kamdar, N., Nguyen, D., Prater, K., Beckmann, C. F., Menon, V., & Greicius, M. D. (2009) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1868-09.2009 · Cited by 1,115 · see citing works
Broad domain generality in focal regions of frontal and parietal cortex
Fedorenko, E., Duncan, J., & Kanwisher, N. (2013) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1315235110 · Cited by 952 · see citing works
The Biological Effects of Childhood Trauma
De Bellis, M. D., & Zisk, A. (2014) · Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America · doi:10.1016/j.chc.2014.01.002 · Cited by 892 · see citing works
Consensus Paper: Pathological Role of the Cerebellum in Autism
Fatemi, S. H., Aldinger, K. A., Ashwood, P., Bauman, M. L., Blaha, C. D., Blatt, G. J., Chauhan, A., Chauhan, V., Dager, S. R., Dickson, P. E., et al. (2012) · The Cerebellum · doi:10.1007/s12311-012-0355-9 · Cited by 723 · see citing works
The Cerebellum and Cognition: Evidence from Functional Imaging Studies
Stoodley, C. J. (2012) · The Cerebellum · doi:10.1007/s12311-011-0260-7 · Cited by 686 · see citing works
The role of the cerebellum in schizophrenia
Andreasen, N. C., & Pierson, R. (2008) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2008.01.003 · Cited by 669 · see citing works
Cognitive contributions to gait and falls: evidence and implications
Amboni, M., Barone, P., & Hausdorff, J. M. (2013) · Movement Disorders · doi:10.1002/mds.25674 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Cerebellar neurocognition: insights into the bottom of the brain
Baillieux, H., Smet, H. J. D., Paquier, P. F., De Deyn, P. P., & Mariën, P. (2008) · Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery · doi:10.1016/j.clineuro.2008.05.013 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
Altered white matter microstructure in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Nagel, B. J., Bathula, D., Herting, M., Schmitt, C., Kroenke, C. D., Fair, D., & Nigg, J. T. (2011) · Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2010.12.003 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Can EEG and MEG detect signals from the human cerebellum?
Andersen, L. M., Jerbi, K., & Dalal, S. S. (2020) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116817 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Shaughnessy, K. A., Hackney, K. J., Clark, B. C., Kraemer, W. J., Terbizan, D. J., Bailey, R. R., & McGrath, R. (2020) · Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease · doi:10.3233/jad-190856 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
De Bellis, M. D., Hooper, S. R., Chen, S. D., Provenzale, J. M., Boyd, B. D., Glessner, C. E., MacFall, J. R., Payne, M. E., Rybczynski, R., & Woolley, D. P. (2015) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579415000942 · Cited by 75 · see citing works
Dean, S. L., Knutson, J. F., Krebs‐Kraft, D. L., & McCarthy, M. M. (2012) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2012.08032.x · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Language, cognition and the cerebellum: Grappling with an enigma
Beaton, A., & Mariën, P. (2010) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2010.02.005 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Decoding the processing of lying using functional connectivity MRI
Jiang, W., Liu, H., Zeng, L., Liao, J., Shen, H., Luo, A., Hu, D., & Wang, W. (2015) · Behavioral and Brain Functions · doi:10.1186/s12993-014-0046-4 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
Behavioral flexibility in a mouse model of developmental cerebellar Purkinje cell loss
Dickson, P. E., Rogers, T. D., Mar, N. D., Martin, L. A., Heck, D., Blaha, C. D., Goldowitz, D., & Mittleman, G. (2010) · Neurobiology of Learning and Memory · doi:10.1016/j.nlm.2010.05.010 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bellebaum, C., & Daum, I.
- Affiliations
- Ruhr University Bochum (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Bellebaum, Christian
- ORCID
- Bellebaum, Christian
- Venue
- The Cerebellum
- Published
- 2007-09
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 184-192
- ISSN
- 1473-4222 (ISSN-L)
- 1473-4230
- OpenAlex
- W2071656990
- Semantic Scholar
- 1e9d9e261f155f0b241542904299e4a3743ced79
- Cited by
- 267
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 6.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Cerebellum (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Vestibular and auditory disorders
- Keywords
- cerebellum, executive function, cognitive control, working memory, multitasking, inhibition, cerebellar lesions, cerebellar dysfunction, motor control models
- MeSH terms
- Cerebellum, Humans, Models, Biological, Neural Pathways, Problem Solving
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
