The cerebellum participates in mental activity : tomographic measurements of regional cerebral blood flow

• Measurements in man of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) have demonstrated a number of cortical and subcortical events coupled to sensory stimulation or motor performance. It has also been shown that local activity changes take place in the cortex during 'pure' mental activity such as motor imagery (unaccompanied by sensory input or motor output). Thus, our group has previously shown that imagination of hand movements gives predominantly a frontal cortical rCBF activation while the corresponding hand movement activates the rolandic hand area mainly. In this paper we report tomographic rCBF measurements with a 133-Xenon SPECT technique during imagined tennis movements and silent counting. Both procedures gave rise to a significant cerebellar activation in addition to cortical rCBF changes. Apparently, the cerebellum may participate in pure mental activity. It possibly plays a role for the temporal organization of neuronal events related to cognition.

Ämnesord

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

Nyckelord

Adult

Brain/anatomy & histology

Cerebellum/anatomy & histology/blood supply/*physiology

Cerebrovascular Circulation/*physiology

Electromyography

Female

Human

Male

Mental Processes/*physiology

Support

Non-U.S. Gov't

Tomography

Emission-Computed

Single-Photon

Psychology

Psykologi

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)