Lega Carlotta, Vecchi Tomaso, D'Angelo Egidio, Cattaneo Zaira
Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Department of Brain and Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy ; Brain Connectivity Center, C. Mondino National Neurological Institute, Pavia, Italy.
Cerebellum Ataxias. 2016 Mar 2;3:6. doi: 10.1186/s40673-016-0044-4. eCollection 2016.
Growing neuroimaging and clinical evidence suggests that the cerebellum plays a critical role in perception. In the auditory domain, the cerebellum seems to be important in different aspects of music and sound processing. Here we investigated the possible causal role of the cerebellum in two auditory tasks, a pitch discrimination and a timbre discrimination task. Specifically, participants performed a pitch and a timbre discrimination task prior and after receiving offline low frequency transcranical magnetic stimulation (TMS) over their (right) cerebellum.
Suppressing activity in the right cerebellum by means of inhibitory 1 Hz TMS affected participants' ability to discriminate pitch but not timbre.
These findings point to a causal role of the cerebellum in at least certain aspects of sound processing and are important in a clinical perspective helping understanding the impact of cerebellar lesions on sensory functions.
越来越多的神经影像学和临床证据表明，小脑在感知中起着关键作用。在听觉领域，小脑似乎在音乐和声音处理的不同方面都很重要。在此，我们研究了小脑在两项听觉任务（音高辨别和音色辨别任务）中可能的因果作用。具体而言，参与者在接受针对其（右侧）小脑的离线低频经颅磁刺激（TMS）之前和之后，分别进行了音高和音色辨别任务。
通过1赫兹抑制性TMS抑制右侧小脑的活动，影响了参与者辨别音高的能力，但不影响音色辨别能力。
这些发现表明小脑在声音处理的至少某些方面具有因果作用，从临床角度来看，有助于理解小脑病变对感觉功能的影响，具有重要意义。
