The cerebellum never starts a movement, yet nothing moves smoothly without it: it compares the movement the cortex planned with the movement the body is actually making, and corrects the difference. Examiners set one long question here again and again, “divisions, connections and functions of the cerebellum”, so the schematic of the divisions and the cortical circuit are worth drawing until they come out from memory. The signs of a cerebellar lesion, with the bedside tests, are the standard short note.
Topics, in the book’s order
- Cerebellar divisions, histology and connections · pp. 1088–1091 · asked 9 times
- Cerebellar functions, lesions and tests · beyond your pages · asked twice
When you’ve read them: Quiz 132 · Cerebellum, 15 questions.
After this chapter you should be able to
- draw a schematic of the cerebellar divisions with the function of each
- list the afferent inputs to the cerebellum, and say which tract comes in on climbing fibres
- name the cells of each cortical layer and say what each one connects to
- explain the internal circuit of the cerebellar cortex and what it does to the deep nuclei
- name the four deep cerebellar nuclei, what feeds each, and how each influences the descending pathways
- list and explain the functions of the cerebellum
- list the features of cerebellar disease
- list the cerebellar function tests
Going further: the connections and functions in full detail, the physiological reason behind each cerebellar sign, and how each bedside test is performed.
Viva checklist
- Where the cerebellum lies, and what each of the three peduncles connects it to
- Surface area and weight compared with the cerebral cortex, and why the cortex is so folded
- The posterolateral and primary fissures, and what each separates
- The three functional divisions, their older names, and the function of each
- Why vermal and paravermal spinocerebellum do different jobs
- The three cortical layers and the cells in each
- Why the Purkinje cell is the key cell of the cerebellar cortex
- Which cells the mossy fibres end on, and which the climbing fibres end on
- The four deep nuclei, and which part of the cortex projects to each
- The seven afferent tracts, and the one that arrives as climbing fibres
- Where the deep nuclei send their output, and which descending pathways they steer
- Functions of the cerebellum, with the comparator idea
- Signs of a cerebellar lesion, and why they are on the same side as the lesion
- The bedside cerebellar function tests, and what a positive result means