Abstract
An increasing number of studies demonstrated the involvement of the cerebellum in (social) sequence processing. The current preliminary study is the first to investigate the causal involvement of the cerebellum in sequence generation, using low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (LF-rTMS). By targeting the posterior cerebellum, we hypothesized that the induced neuro-excitability modulation would lead to altered performance on a Picture and Story sequencing task, which involve the generation of the correct chronological order of various social and non-social stories depicted in cartoons or sentences. Our results indicate that participants receiving LF-rTMS over the cerebellum, as compared to sham participants, showed a stronger learning effect from pre to post stimulation for both tasks and for all types of sequences (i.e. mechanical, social scripts, false belief, true belief). No differences between sequence types were observed. Our results suggest a positive effect of LF-rTMS on sequence generation. We conclude that the cerebellum is causally involved in the generation of sequences of social and nonsocial events. Our discussion focuses on recommendations for future studies.
Highlights
Over the last 5 years, neuroscientists have demonstrated the robust involvement of the cerebellum in social cognition (Van Overwalle et al, 2014), the cerebellum has been traditionally seen as a major site of non-cognitive motor and movement functioning
The involvement of the cerebellum in social sequences is typically investigated using tasks consisting of elements of social actions that have to be put into the correct chronological order (e.g., Leggio et al, 2008; Cattaneo et al, 2012)
We hypothesized that if the cerebellum is causally involved in the generation of social action sequences, we should observe performance changes on the Picture or Story sequencing task for social action sequences after targeting the cerebellum using low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (LF-rTMS) in comparison with a Sham condition
Summary
Over the last 5 years, neuroscientists have demonstrated the robust involvement of the cerebellum in social cognition (Van Overwalle et al, 2014), the cerebellum has been traditionally seen as a major site of non-cognitive motor and movement functioning. Clinical studies revealed social impairments of cerebellar patients compared to healthy controls (Sokolovsky et al, 2010; Hoche et al, 2016), and revealed the impact of deficiencies in the cerebellum on social functioning in various other neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autistic spectrum disorders, attentional deficit and hyperkinetic disorder, depression, and schizophrenia (Bauman and Kemper, 2005; Penn, 2006; Wang et al, 2014; D’Mello et al, 2015) These studies demonstrate the involvement of the cerebellum in social information processing and its connectivity to social regions and functionality in the cerebrum. To test the role of social mentalizing in the cerebellum, Van Overwalle et al (2019a) requested participants to order pictorial sequences involving such true and false belief stories in a Picture sequencing task. We hypothesized that if the cerebellum is causally involved in the generation of social action sequences, we should observe performance changes on the Picture or Story sequencing task for social action sequences after targeting the cerebellum using LF-rTMS in comparison with a Sham condition
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
