Sensorimotor mapping of the human cerebellum: fMRI evidence of somatotopicorganization

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to determine area s of activation in the cerebellar cortex in 46 human subjects during a seri es of motor tasks. To reduce the variance due to differences in individual anatomy, a specific transformational procedure for the cerebellum was intro duced. The activation areas for movements of lips, tongue, hands, and feet were determined and found to be sharply confined to lobules and sublobules and their sagittal zones in the rostral and caudal spine-cerebellar cortex. There was a clear symmetry mirroring at the midline. The activation mapped as two distinct homunculoid representations. One, a more extended represen tation, was located upside down in the superior cerebellum, and a second on e, doubled and smaller, in the inferior cerebellum. The two representations were remarkably similar to those proposed by Snider and Eldred [1951] five decades ago. In the upper representation, an intralimb somatotopy for the right elbow, wrist, and fingers was revealed. The maps seem to confirm earl ier electrophysiological findings of sagittal zones in animals. They differ , however, from micromapping reports on fractured somatotopic maps in the c erebellar cortex of mammals. We assume that the representations that we obs erved are not solely the result of spatial integration of hemodynamic event s underlying the fMRI method and may reflect integration of afferent periph eral and central information in the cerebellar cortex. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.