The role of the cerebellum in fluid intelligence: An fMRI study

Abstract

Traditionally, neuroimaging studies of fluid intelligence have focused on brain activation in frontal-parietal regions. In the past decade there has been accumulating evidence regarding the involvement of the cerebellum in higher cognitive function. In the current study we aimed to further investigate the role of the cerebellum in processing of fluid intelligence. We therefore scanned thirty-nine healthy participants (13 females and 26 males), recruited from the general population. Participant performed a novel abstract reasoning functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging task, modeled after stimuli from the advanced Raven's Progressive Matrices test. Analyses of both brain function and network architecture focusing on hubness were performed. We demonstrate activation in frontal and parietal well-known regions, together with an extensive activation in several cerebellar sub-regions. Moreover, four cerebellar regions served as crucial hub regions. Therefore, we provide evidence of the role of the cerebellum in fluid intelligence both by means of task brain activation and graph theory topology. Future studies should further assess in-depth the cerebellar contribution to cognitive processing in different brain disorders involving neural network alterations, allowing a better understanding of cognitive deficits.