Cerebellar contributions to spatial memory.

There is mounting evidence for a role for the cerebellum in working memory (WM). The majority of relevant studies has examined verbal WM and has suggested specialisation of the right cerebellar hemisphere for language processing. Our study used theta burst stimulation (TBS) to examine whether there is a converse cerebellar hemispheric specialisation for spatial WM. We conducted two experiments to examine spatial WM performance before and after TBS to mid-hemispheric and lateral locations in the posterior cerebellum. Participants were required to recall the order of presentation of targets on a screen or the targets' order of presentation and their locations. We observed impaired recollection of target order after TBS to the mid left cerebellar hemisphere and reduced response speed after TBS to the left lateral cerebellum. We suggest that these results give evidence of the contributions of the left cerebellar cortex to the encoding and retrieval of spatial information.

Cerebellar contributions to verbal working memory.

There is increasing evidence for a cerebellar role in working memory. Clinical research has shown that working memory impairments after cerebellar damage and neuroimaging studies have revealed task-specific activation in the cerebellum during working memory processing. A lateralisation of cerebellar function within working memory has been proposed with the right hemisphere making the greater contribution to verbal processing and the left hemisphere for visuospatial tasks. We used continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to examine whether differences in post-stimulation performance could be observed based on the cerebellar hemisphere stimulated and the type of data presented. We observed that participants were significantly less accurate on a verbal version of a Sternberg task after stimulation to the right cerebellar hemisphere when compared to left hemisphere stimulation. Performance on a visual Sternberg task was unaffected by stimulation of either hemisphere. We discuss our results in the context of prior studies that have used cerebellar stimulation to investigate working memory and highlight the cerebellar role in phonological encoding.

Brain stimulation studies of non-motor cerebellar function: a systematic review.

Evidence for a cerebellar role in non-motor functions has been demonstrated by clinical and neuroimaging research. These approaches do not allow causal relationships to be inferred though the experimental manipulation of the cerebellum. Transcranial magnetic and current stimulation may allow better understanding of the cerebellum via the temporary alteration of its operation in healthy volunteers. This review examined all studies of the cerebellar role in non-motor functions using non-invasive brain stimulation. Of 7585 papers captured by an initial search, 26 met specific selection criteria. Analysis revealed behavioural effects across learning, memory, cognition, emotional processing, perception and timing, though the results were not sufficiently similar as to offer a definitive statement of the cerebellum's role. The non-invasive application of stimulation to the cerebellum presents challenges due to surrounding anatomy and the relatively small target areas involved. This review analysed the methods used to address these challenges with a view to suggesting methodological improvements for the establishment of standards for the location of cerebellar stimulation targets and appropriate levels of stimulation.

Hemispheric specialisation in haptic processing.

This study investigated the organising principles of touch. We examined specialisations within the haptic system and their hemispheric distribution. Haptic processing consists of the integration of data from multiple sources to form a single percept. Previous research provides strong support for a hierarchical and functional distribution within haptic processing. We investigated hemispheric asymmetry in haptic discrimination of objects with differing textures and centres of mass. By analogy with vision it was hypothesised that participants would demonstrate a left-hand advantage for centre of mass discrimination (a 'global', presumed right hemisphere, judgement) and a right-hand advantage for surface texture judgements (a 'local', presumed left hemisphere discrimination). We found that left-handed participants showed these effects to a lesser degree than did the right-handers, consistent with the notion that left-handed people generally show weaker asymmetries in bimanual tasks. In a second experiment the effect of conflicting information on haptic percept formation was investigated. Following from the previous hypotheses it was predicted that participants would be more accurate with their right hands at judging conflicting surfaces. Contrary to predictions an advantage was demonstrated for the left hand for texture discrimination and for the right hand for centre of mass judgement.