Where is the cerebellum
What is the Cerebellum?
[Music]
tucked away in the back of your brain is
one of the densest structures in the
brain it makes up only 1/10 of the brain
but it contains more than half of its
cells it's called the cerebellum and it
is an ancient and universal structure
found in songbirds and electric fish and
in all vertebrates humans and other
primates have a particularly
well-developed cerebellum and scientists
know that it helps to coordinate our
movements damage to the cerebellum can
make it difficult to button your shirt
or even walk in a straight line but
recent research is starting to reveal
other roles for the cerebellum beyond
movement it seems to be involved in
advanced cognitive functions like
learning how to make a decision imagine
a student driver learning to push the
brake with their foot when they see a
red light the cerebellum seems to be
involved in forming this association to
test this idea
scientists at Columbia's Zukerman
Institute set up an experiment they
trained animals to respond to specific
symbols with specific movements the
scientists found that some cells in the
cerebellum changed their activity as the
animals learned these associations even
though the animals movements didn't
change this was the first direct
evidence that the cerebellum is involved
in this kind of complex learning
scientists have just begun to explore
the cerebellum and everything it can do
and this could help us to understand
brain disorders like autism that have
been linked to abnormalities in the
cerebellum
you
