Cerebellar areas dedicated to social cognition? A comparison of meta-analytic and connectivity results

This meta-analytic connectivity modelling (MACM) study explores the functional connectivity of the cerebellum with the cerebrum in social cognitive processes. In a recent meta-analysis, Van Overwalle, Baetens, Mariën, and Vandekerckhove (2014) documented that the cerebellum is critically implicated in social processes of "body" (i.e., mirroring) and "mind" reading (i.e., mentalizing), and most strongly so in more abstract and complex forms of social mentalizing, often involving the reconstruction of past, future and hypothetical events. In a recent functional connectivity study, Buckner, Krienen, Castellanos, Diaz, & Yeo (2011) offered a novel parcellation of cerebellar topography that substantially overlaps with the cerebellar meta-analytic findings of Van Overwalle et al. (2014). This overlap might suggest that the involvement of the cerebellum in social reasoning critically depends on its functional connectivity with the cerebrum. To test this hypothesis, we explored the meta-analytic functional connectivity between the cerebellum and the cerebrum during social cognition. The MACM results confirm substantial and distinct connectivity with respect to the functions of (a) social mentalizing ("mind" reading) and (b) action understanding ("body" reading). The consistent and strong connectivity findings of this analysis suggest that cerebellar activity during social judgments reflects a domain-specific mentalizing and mirroring functionality, and that these functions are strongly connected with the corresponding functional networks in the cerebrum.

Jaar van publicatie:2015

Trefwoorden:social cognition, cerebellum, functional neuroimaging, meta-analysis, functional connectivity