Abstract
Anatomical connections link the cerebellar cortex with multiple sensory, motor, association, and paralimbic cerebral areas. The majority of fibers that exit cerebellar cortex synapse in dentate nuclei (DN) before reaching extracerebellar structures such as cerebral cortex, but the functional neuroanatomy of human DN remains largely unmapped. Neuroimaging research has redefined broad categories of functional division in the human brain showing that primary processing, attentional (task positive) processing, and default-mode (task negative) processing are three central poles of neural macroscale functional organization. This broad spectrum of human neural processing categories is represented not only in the cerebral cortex, but also in the thalamus, striatum, and cerebellar cortex. Whether functional organization in DN obeys a similar set of macroscale divisions, and whether DN are yet another compartment of representation of a broad spectrum of human neural processing categories, remains unknown. Here, we show for the first time that human DN are optimally divided into three functional territories as indexed by high spatio-temporal resolution resting-state MRI in 77 healthy humans, and that these three distinct territories contribute uniquely to default-mode, salience-motor, and visual cerebral cortical networks. Our findings provide a systems neuroscience substrate for cerebellar output to influence multiple broad categories of neural control.
Highlights
Neuroimaging research has redefined broad categories of functional division in the human brain
Contrasting with previous views that define motor versus nonmotor territories as the principal poles of dentate nuclei (DN) organization, the results presented here indicate that DN subdivisions span a broad range of human macro-scale neural specialization categories, namely default-mode, attentional, and multiple dimensions of unimodal processing including motor and visual
Each functional territory identified within the DN exhibited a unique pattern of functional connectivity with the cerebral cortex that corresponded to well-established brain networks (Figure 2)
Summary
Neuroimaging research has redefined broad categories of functional division in the human brain. Task-negative regions are engaged in abstract higher-order association processes that are furthest removed from primary systems (Margulies et al 2016, Mesulam 1998) and anti-correlated with task-positive networks (Fox et al 2005, Zhou et al 2018), including unfocused processes with low attentional demands such as mind wandering, and related states of autobiographical memory retrieval and introspection (Buckner et al 2008, Greicius et al 2003) This new macro-scale understanding of the range and poles of brain function has revealed that the cerebral cortex (Yeo et al 2011), and the thalamus (Hwang et al 2017), striatum (Choi et al 2012), and cerebellar cortex (Buckner et al 2011) contribute to a broad spectrum of human neural processing categories. Primary processing networks such as somatomotor, task-positive networks such as ventral and dorsal attention, and task-negative default mode network are all represented within each of these structures
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