Cerebellar neurocognition: a new avenue

The functional role of the cerebellum is traditionally defined as a mere co ordinator of automatic and somatic motor functions. This view determined mo st of the clinical and experimental investigations of the functions of the cerebellum and overshadowed many attempts to expand its role to non-motor f unctions. However; during the past decades the collaboration across contemp orary neuroscience disciplines has brought about a substantial modification of traditional thinking about the cerebellum. Converging evidence from dif ferent neuroscientific angles established the view that the human cerebellu m participates in a much wider range of functions than conventionally accep ted.,Studies have brought to the fore that the cerebellum also modulates ne urocognitive functions of at least these parts of the brain to which it is reciprocally connected. In less than two decades, the concept of 'cerebella r neurocognition' evolved from a mere afterthought to an exciting new multi faced area of contemporary neuroscientific investigations. Within this area , one of the major avenues of current research is the role of the cerebellu m in non-motor language processing. This paper reviews the recently acknowl edged role of the cerebellum in neurocognition and linguistic processes.