TY - JOUR

T1 - Cerebellar contributions to spatial memory

AU - Tomlinson, Simon P

AU - Davis, Nick J

AU - Morgan, Helen M

AU - Bracewell, R Martyn

N1 - Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2014/8/22

Y1 - 2014/8/22

N2 - There is mounting evidence for a role for the cerebellum in working memory (WM). The majority of relevant studies has examined verbal WM and has suggested specialisation of the right cerebellar hemisphere for language processing. Our study used theta burst stimulation (TBS) to examine whether there is a converse cerebellar hemispheric specialisation for spatial WM. We conducted two experiments to examine spatial WM performance before and after TBS to mid-hemispheric and lateral locations in the posterior cerebellum. Participants were required to recall the order of presentation of targets on a screen or the targets' order of presentation and their locations. We observed impaired recollection of target order after TBS to the mid left cerebellar hemisphere and reduced response speed after TBS to the left lateral cerebellum. We suggest that these results give evidence of the contributions of the left cerebellar cortex to the encoding and retrieval of spatial information.

AB - There is mounting evidence for a role for the cerebellum in working memory (WM). The majority of relevant studies has examined verbal WM and has suggested specialisation of the right cerebellar hemisphere for language processing. Our study used theta burst stimulation (TBS) to examine whether there is a converse cerebellar hemispheric specialisation for spatial WM. We conducted two experiments to examine spatial WM performance before and after TBS to mid-hemispheric and lateral locations in the posterior cerebellum. Participants were required to recall the order of presentation of targets on a screen or the targets' order of presentation and their locations. We observed impaired recollection of target order after TBS to the mid left cerebellar hemisphere and reduced response speed after TBS to the left lateral cerebellum. We suggest that these results give evidence of the contributions of the left cerebellar cortex to the encoding and retrieval of spatial information.

KW - Adult

KW - Cerebellum

KW - Female

KW - Humans

KW - Male

KW - Memory, Short-Term

KW - Spatial Memory

KW - Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

KW - Young Adult

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.06.057

DO - 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.06.057

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25004407

VL - 578

SP - 182

EP - 186

JO - Neuroscience Letters

JF - Neuroscience Letters

SN - 0304-3940

ER -