Functional Topography of the Cerebellum in Verbal Working Memory

By C. Marvel, John E. Desmond. 2010

211 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Speech—both overt and covert—facilitates working memory by creating and refreshing motor memory traces, allowing new information to be received and processed. Neuroimaging studies suggest a functional topography within the sub-regions of the cerebellum that subserve verbal working memory. Medial regions of the anterior cerebellum support overt speech, consistent with other forms of motor execution such as finger tapping, whereas lateral portions of the superior cerebellum support speech planning and preparation (e.g., covert speech). The inferior cerebellum is active when information is maintained across a delay, but activation appears to be independent of speech, lateralized by modality of stimulus presentation, and possibly related to phonological storage processes. Motor (dorsal) and cognitive (ventral) channels of cerebellar output nuclei can be distinguished in working memory. Clinical investigations suggest that hyper-activity of cerebellum and disrupted control of inner speech may contribute to certain psychiatric symptoms.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Endocrine and Autonomic Systems, Neurology, Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015, background): “…researchers interested in inner speech dysfunction as a basis for psychopathology (McGuire, Murray, & Shah, 1993; Shergill, Brammer, Williams, Murray, & McGuire, 2000, see Adult Psychopathology), and work on the rehearsal and maintenance of verbal working memory (e.g., Marvel & Desmond, 2010).”
Consensus Paper: Roles of the Cerebellum in Motor Control—The Diversity of Ideas on Cerebellar Involvement in Movement (2011, background): “observed during various conditions of internal speech processing [96, 97].”
From storage to manipulation: How the neural correlates of verbal working memory reflect varying demands on inner speech. (2012, background): “An internal code for motor sequences related to the vocalization (even if not executed) may serve as a memory trace that enhances verbal working memory (Marvel & Desmond, 2010b; Ravizza, Delgado, Chein, Becker, & Fiez, 2004).”
Behavioral self-regulation and executive function both predict visuomotor skills and early academic achievement (2014, background): “Other work (Marvel & Desmond, 2010b) shows that as EF demands are amplified, activity in both the cerebellum and cortex increase.”
The brain’s conversation with itself: neural substrates of dialogic inner speech (2015, background): “The cerebellum, in contrast, has been proposed to support maintenance of verbal working memory (i.e. articulatory rehearsal) via its connections with motor cortex (Marvel and Desmond, 2010).”
Consensus Paper: The Cerebellum's Role in Movement and Cognition (2013, background): “The storage and rehearsal processes of the phonological loop involve the lateral cerebellum and speech-related areas of the cerebral cortex in both overt and silent speech used in solving problems [148, 150].”