How Does the Cerebellum Work?

This small structure of the brain plays a huge role in coordinating our movements, speech, and maybe even emotion. Learn about the cerebellum in today's episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/human-body/systems/nervous-system/cerebellum.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, in an average week, how
many times would you say you walk across the room,
drive your car, try and potentially fail to learn dance
choreography off of YouTube. Chances are you're doing at least

(00:22):
one of those on a regular basis, and you have
one small, but mighty brain structure to thank for it,
the cerebellum, named for the Latin term for little brain
and hanging off the back of the main brain. This
adorable sounding anatomical feature packs a major punch for its
diminutive size. For the article of this episode is based

(00:44):
on has to Work. Spoke by email with Genese Wiseman,
m D, a clinical associate professor in the Department of
Neurology at the n y U S School of Medicine.
She said the brain weighs about three pounds one point
three kilos, and the cerebellum makes up about ten percent
of that. It's made up of free lobes the vermice
in the center of vermics means worms in Latin, and

(01:06):
it's a long, thin structure that looks like a worm
and a cerebellar hemisphere on each side of that. Housta
Works also spoke via email with Daniel Friedman, d O,
a pediatric neurophysiology fellow at Nationwide Children's Hospital. He said
it weighs about five ounces a hundred forty grams. It's
the coordination center of the brain and receives a large

(01:29):
amount of sensory input from the spinal cord and brain
regarding the body's movements and position. It uses this information
to maintain smooth, coordinated movements a wheel. Get to how
the cerebellum translates all that input into action in a second,
but first let's go deeper on this brain structures structure

(01:50):
how staff Works also spoke via email with Parnete Growl,
a fellow at Rush University Medical Center. She said it
has a beautiful branched appearance, which is very unique. It
has a complex circuitry, Friedman said. When put in half,
the branching pattern of the cerebellar, white matter required to
connect all the folia Latin for leaves can be seen.

(02:12):
This resembles a head of cauliflower or broccoli and is
referred to as the arbor vitae Latin for tree of life.
Appearances aside, the cerebellum plays a major role in a
variety of everyday functions. A Weissman explained, the vermice is
most associated with coordinating movement of the trunk and legs,
and the cerebellar hemispheres work to coordinate the movement of

(02:36):
the arms, hands, and fingers. The cerebellum coordinates voluntary movements
like posture, balance, coordination, and speech, resulting in smooth muscle movements.
The cerebellum gets sensory input from the joints in the
limbs in the trunk and also from the motor areas
of the brain, the parts that plan and direct movement.
The cerebellum matches those two inputs to make sure that

(02:59):
the limb or unk is doing what the motor cortex
in the brain wants it to. This is how you
can walk a straight line, or close your eyes and
touch your nose without missing. It coordinates the movement of
your eyes so that you can smoothly track an object.
It also coordinates the muscles of swallowing and speech so
you don't choke on your food, and so you can say,
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. But according

(03:23):
to research published in October in the journal Neuron, all
these important functions are just part of the picture. The
cerebellum is apparently capable of a whole lot more, A
Wiseman said. Recently, scientists have found that this most well
known function may be only one of many functions of
the cerebellum, and only involved it. Other functions include modulation

(03:46):
of emotion, memory, language, and abstract thinking. Alike with movement,
the cerebellum monitors these functions to make sure that they're
being done the right way. It's been referred to as
the editor of the brain. With all of this responsibility,
you can't help but wonder what might happen if the
cerebellum were to experience any kind of damage, A Freedman said.

(04:08):
The primary symptom of a damaged cerebellum is a taxia,
or uncoordinated movement. Permanent damage to the cerebellum can come
from stroke, tumors, infection, or alcohol use. A taxia can
also be temporary, as seen in alcohol intoxication. Oh When
police officers conduct a roadside sobriety test, they're checking cerebellar

(04:29):
function by having you touch finger to nose or walk
a straight line, a Weistman said. Symptoms and signs of
cerebellar disease include difficulty coordinating movements such as walking, moving
the arms, and coordinating the muscles of swallowing in speech
into a smooth pattern, and people can have trouble with
balance of moving the arms and hands in the way

(04:49):
they want a swallowing and coordinating the voice when they speak,
and the speech can sound slurred. Cerebellar damage can cause
a tremor of the limbs, trunk, or voice. Because the
cerebellum also regulates smooth movements of the eyes of people
with cerebellar damage may also experience double vision or abnormal
eye movements, and because the cerebellum is apparently a player

(05:12):
in cognitive and emotional function, researchers believed damage could contribute
to mental illnesses like schizophrenia. While all of this sophisticated
circuitry certainly may seem exclusively reserved for human brains, the
cerebellum predates us by a long shot, and other vertebrates
have cerebellums that vary in size and shape but work similarly.

(05:34):
Elephants have the biggest that we know of. Al Weisman
said The cerebellum is an evolutionarily old structure hundreds of
millions of years old, found in fish and reptiles as
well as mammals. After all, fish have to swim straight
since the cerebellar, vermis and hemispheres coordinate different parts of
the body. As you look up the evolutionary scale, as

(05:56):
animals begin to use their hands in a way different
from their legs, they're cerebellar hemispheres get larger. But which
came first, the structure or the action. Today's episode is
based on the article The cerebellum is the Body's Little
brain on house to works dot com, written by Michelle Konstantonovsky.

(06:17):
Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership
with house to works dot com, and it's produced by
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