Investigation of Cerebellar Involvement in Cognitive Function

小脑参与认知功能的研究

• 批准号: 9420634
• 负责人: JOHN E DESMOND
• 金额: $ 48.79万
• 依托单位: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-22 至 2020-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9420634
• 关键词: Address; Anatomy; Appearance; Articulation; Biological Models; Brain; Broca' s area; Cerebellum; Cognition; Cognitive; Cognitive deficits; Consensus; Detection; Equilibrium; Error Sources; Eye; Eye Movements; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Future; Goals; Inferior; Investigation; Left; Letters; Linguistics; Link; Maintenance; Methods; Mind; Modeling; Motor; Movement; Muscle; Nature; Neuropsychology; Parietal; Patients; Pattern; Phase; Planning Theory; Process; Protocols documentation; Publications; Publishing; Research; Research Personnel; Retrieval; Sensory; Short-Term Memory; Site; Source; Stimulus; Structure; System; Testing; Transcranial magnetic stimulation; base; cognitive function; cognitive system; cognitive task; design; executive function; experimental study; finger movement; frontal lobe; insight; interest; motor control; neocortical; neuroimaging; novel; number theory; operation; phonology; public health relevance; rehabilitation strategy; rehearsal; response; sensory feedback; theories

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall goal of this research is to investigate the nature of cerebellar involvement in cognitive function, using functional MRI (fMRI), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and concurrent TMS/fMRI. Cerebellar activation has been found in a wide variety of cognitive tasks, including verbal fluency, conceptual reasoning, planning, and theory of mind. Although a number of theories of cerebellar involvement in cognition have been proposed, there is no consensus to date on a specific operation that is provided by the cerebellum that contributes to cognitive function. In addition some cerebellar researchers question whether cognitive-related cerebellar activations are contaminated by incidental motor movements, e.g., movements of the eyes, or movements of articulation. In this project we address these issues using verbal working memory, which reliably and robustly elicits cerebellar activation, as a model cognitive system. Verbal working memory is a fundamental cognitive function with a strong theoretical framework. We propose that the cerebellum can be integrated into this framework: Our studies to date have supported a cerebro-cerebellar verbal working memory model that emphasizes a functional link between neocortical articulatory control regions, such as premotor cortex/Broca's Area, to the superior cerebellum, and a second network that links neocortical substrates of phonological storage, located in inferior parietal regions, to the inferior cerebellum. Our first specific aim is to test these circuitry assumptions using novel concurrent TMS/fMRI investigations that employ our newly developed and published methods for precisely identifying in the scanner the stimulation site and TMS trajectory in the brain. Our second specific aim is to assess the contribution of incidental motor function to cerebellar activation during verbal working memory by systematically varying the eye movement, articulatory movement, and finger movement requirements during verbal working memory to determine if these motor functions can explain working memory-load-dependent activations in the cerebellum. Our third aim is to evaluate alternative theoretical explanations of the fundamental computation underlying cerebellar cognitive activations, using verbal working memory as our model system. Our verbal working memory protocol, the Sternberg Task, contains a number of components that have been theorized by different researchers to be fundamental to cerebellar function. These components include sensory acquisition, timing, sequence deviation detection, and forward modeling/error correction. The experiments in this project will examine the contribution of these different components to verbal working memory elicited cerebellar activations. The impact of this project is that the results will help us understand the fundamental functions(s) that the cerebellum provides in cognition. This understanding is essential for interpreting both the numerous functional neuroimaging studies that show cerebellar activation in well controlled cognitive tasks, as well as the patterns of cognitive deficits observed in cerebellar patients.

 描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的总体目标是利用功能性 MRI (fMRI)、经颅磁刺激 (TMS) 来研究小脑参与认知功能的性质，并且已发现 TMS/fMRI 并发小脑激活。尽管已经提出了许多小脑参与认知的理论，但迄今为止尚未达成共识。小脑提供的有助于认知功能的特定操作此外，一些小脑研究人员质疑认知相关的小脑激活是否受到偶然的运动运动（例如眼睛的运动或关节运动）的影响。这些问题使用言语工作记忆作为模型认知系统，言语工作记忆是一种具有强大理论框架的基本认知功能。小脑可以整合到这个框架中：迄今为止，我们的研究支持了脑-小脑言语工作记忆模型，该模型强调新皮质关节控制区域（例如前运动皮层/布罗卡区）与上小脑和第二个网络之间的功能联系将位于下顶叶区域的语音存储的新皮质基质与下小脑连接起来。我们的第一个具体目标是使用新颖的并发来测试这些电路假设。 TMS/fMRI 研究采用我们新开发和发布的方法，在扫描仪中精确识别大脑中的刺激部位和 TMS 轨迹。我们的第二个具体目标是系统地评估言语工作记忆期间附带运动功能对小脑激活的贡献。我们的第三个目标是评估言语工作记忆期间的眼球运动、关节运动和手指运动要求，以确定这些运动功能是否可以解释小脑中工作记忆负荷依赖性激活。 小脑认知激活的基本计算，使用言语工作记忆作为我们的模型系统，我们的言语工作记忆协议，斯滕伯格任务，包含许多被不同研究人员理论认为是小脑功能基础的组成部分。该项目的实验将检查这些不同成分对言语工作记忆引起的小脑激活的贡献。这种理解对于解释众多功能性神经影像学研究（这些研究显示小脑在良好控制的认知任务中的激活）以及在小脑患者中观察到的认知缺陷模式至关重要。