Neuroimaging studies of the cerebellum: language, learning and memory

Abstract

During the decade following a functional neuroimaging study of language that showed cerebellar involvement in a cognitive task, PET and fMRI studies have continued to provide evidence that the role of the cerebellum extends beyond that of motor control and that this structure contributes in some way to cognitive operations. In this review, we describe neuroimaging evidence for cerebellar involvement in working memory, implicit and explicit learning and memory, and language, and we discuss some of the problems and limitations faced by researchers who use neuroimaging to investigate cerebellar function. We also raise a set of outstanding questions that need to be addressed through further neuroimaging and behavioral experiments before differing functional accounts of cerebellar involvement in cognition can be resolved.