San Diego brain scientist finds the cerebellum plays crucial role in the brain

The term cerebellum, literally translated as little brain, is actually a massive portion of the brain, unlike what its name would imply. 

Positioned under the cortex of the hindbrain, the cerebellum plays a crucial role in our ability to experience the senses, in addition to pain, thought, emotion and movement, SDSU NewsCenter reported. 

The cerebellum is "essentially a flat sheet with the thickness of a crepe," SDSU NewsCenter reported. It has many folds that allow it to fit in a small space of the cerebral cortex. 

The neuroimaging team at San Diego State University found that the cerebellum has the equivalent of 80% of the surface area of the cerebral cortex, which hints at the power of the human mind, Martin Sereno, director of SDSU’s MRI Imaging Center told SDSU NewsCenter. 

“The fact that it has such a large surface area speaks to the evolution of distinctively human behaviors and cognition,” Sereno told SDSU NewsCenter. “It has expanded so much that the folding patterns are very complex.”

Sereno and his team have discovered that the cerebellum, when unfolded makes up a “crepe” that is four inches wide by three inches long. The ability to map these details of the brain was previously impossible due to technological deficiencies. 

“Until now we only had crude models of what it looked like,” Sereno told SDSU NewsCenter. “We now have a complete map or surface representation of the cerebellum, much like cities, counties, and states.” 

Sereno is optimistic for what he may discover about these lesser-known portions of the cerebellum.

“Now that we have the first high resolution base map of the human cerebellum, there are many possibilities for researchers to start filling in what is certain to be a complex quilt of inputs, from many different parts of the cerebral cortex in more detail than ever before,” Sereno told SDSU NewsCenter.