Department of Pathology and Immunology, Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute of Texas Children's Hospital Houston, TX, USA.
Front Syst Neurosci. 2013 Nov 14;7:83. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2013.00083. eCollection 2013.
The cerebellum has a well-established role in maintaining motor coordination and studies of cerebellar learning suggest that it does this by recognizing neural patterns, which it uses to predict optimal movements. Serious damage to the cerebellum impairs this learning and results in a set of motor disturbances called ataxia. However, recent work implicates the cerebellum in cognition and emotion, and it has been argued that cerebellar dysfunction contributes to non-motor conditions such as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Based on human and animal model studies, two major questions arise. Does the cerebellum contribute to non-motor as well as motor diseases, and if so, how does altering its function contribute to such diverse symptoms? The architecture and connectivity of cerebellar circuits may hold the answers to these questions. An emerging view is that cerebellar defects can trigger motor and non-motor neurological conditions by globally influencing brain function. Furthermore, during development cerebellar circuits may play a role in wiring events necessary for higher cognitive functions such as social behavior and language. We discuss genetic, electrophysiological, and behavioral evidence that implicates Purkinje cell dysfunction as a major culprit in several diseases and offer a hypothesis as to how canonical cerebellar functions might be at fault in non-motor as well as motor diseases.
小脑在维持运动协调方面起着重要作用，小脑学习的研究表明，它通过识别神经模式来实现这一功能，这些模式可用于预测最佳运动。小脑的严重损伤会损害这种学习能力，并导致一系列称为共济失调的运动障碍。然而，最近的研究表明小脑与认知和情绪有关，有人认为小脑功能障碍与非运动性疾病（如自闭症谱系障碍）有关。基于人类和动物模型的研究，出现了两个主要问题。小脑是否不仅与运动性疾病有关，而且如果有关，改变其功能如何导致如此多样化的症状？小脑回路的结构和连接可能为这些问题提供答案。一种新出现的观点认为，小脑缺陷可以通过全局影响大脑功能，引发运动和非运动性神经疾病。此外，在发育过程中，小脑回路可能在社交行为和语言等高级认知功能所需的布线事件中发挥作用。我们讨论了遗传、电生理和行为证据，表明浦肯野细胞功能障碍是几种疾病的主要罪魁祸首，并提出了一个假设，即经典小脑功能如何在运动性和非运动性疾病中出错。
