Variations on the theme: focus on cerebellum and emotional processing

Camilla Ciapponi; Yuhe Li; Dianela A Osorio Becerra; Dimitri Rodarie; Claudia Casellato; Lisa Mapelli; Egidio D'Angelo

doi:10.3389/fnsys.2023.1185752

Variations on the theme: focus on cerebellum and emotional processing

Front Syst Neurosci. 2023 May 10:17:1185752. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2023.1185752. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Camilla Ciapponi^#¹, Yuhe Li^#¹, Dianela A Osorio Becerra^#¹, Dimitri Rodarie^{1

2}, Claudia Casellato¹, Lisa Mapelli¹, Egidio D'Angelo^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.
² Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy.
³ Brain Connectivity Center, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

The cerebellum operates exploiting a complex modular organization and a unified computational algorithm adapted to different behavioral contexts. Recent observations suggest that the cerebellum is involved not just in motor but also in emotional and cognitive processing. It is therefore critical to identify the specific regional connectivity and microcircuit properties of the emotional cerebellum. Recent studies are highlighting the differential regional localization of genes, molecules, and synaptic mechanisms and microcircuit wiring. However, the impact of these regional differences is not fully understood and will require experimental investigation and computational modeling. This review focuses on the cellular and circuit underpinnings of the cerebellar role in emotion. And since emotion involves an integration of cognitive, somatomotor, and autonomic activity, we elaborate on the tradeoff between segregation and distribution of these three main functions in the cerebellum.

Keywords: Purkinje cell; cerebellum; emotion; microcircuit functioning; modular organization.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 956414. “Cerebellum and emotional networks” and under the Flagship program No. 945539 “Human Brain Project, SGA3”. This work was supported by #nextgenerationEU (NGEU) and funded by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR), National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), project MNESYS (PE0000006) – A Multiscale integrated approach to the study of the nervous system in health and disease (DN. 1553 11.10.2022). DR has received funding from the Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi.