Bernard Jessica A
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4235, USA.
Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843-4235, USA.
Cerebellum. 2024 Oct;23(5):2130-2141. doi: 10.1007/s12311-024-01670-5. Epub 2024 Mar 4.
The cerebellum is recognized as being important for optimal behavioral performance across task domains, including motor function, cognition, and affect. Decades of work have highlighted cerebello-thalamo-cortical circuits, from both structural and functional perspectives. However, these circuits of interest have been primarily (though not exclusively) focused on targets in the cerebral cortex. In addition to these cortical connections, the circuit linking the cerebellum and hippocampus is of particular interest. Recently, there has been an increased interest in this circuit, thanks in large part to novel findings in the animal literature demonstrating that neuronal firing in the cerebellum impacts that in the hippocampus. Work in the human brain has provided evidence for interactions between the cerebellum and hippocampus, though primarily this has been in the context of spatial navigation. Given the role of both regions in cognition and aging, and emerging evidence indicating that the cerebellum is impacted in age-related neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's, I propose that further attention to this circuit is warranted. Here, I provide an overview of cerebello-hippocampal interactions in animal models and from human imaging and outline the possible utility of further investigations to improve our understanding of aging and age-related cognitive decline.
小脑被认为对于跨任务领域的最佳行为表现至关重要，这些领域包括运动功能、认知和情感。数十年来的研究工作从结构和功能的角度突出了小脑-丘脑-皮质回路。然而，这些感兴趣的回路主要（尽管并非唯一）集中在大脑皮层的靶点上。除了这些皮质连接外，连接小脑和海马体的回路尤其令人关注。最近，人们对这个回路的兴趣有所增加，这在很大程度上要归功于动物文献中的新发现，这些发现表明小脑的神经元放电会影响海马体中的神经元放电。对人类大脑的研究已经为小脑和海马体之间的相互作用提供了证据，不过主要是在空间导航的背景下。鉴于这两个区域在认知和衰老中的作用，以及新出现的证据表明小脑在诸如阿尔茨海默病等与年龄相关的神经退行性疾病中受到影响，我认为有必要进一步关注这个回路。在这里，我概述了动物模型以及人类成像中脑-海马体相互作用的情况，并概述了进一步研究对于增进我们对衰老和与年龄相关的认知衰退的理解可能具有的效用。
