Aaron Boes, MD, PhD, University of Iowa, Dept of Neurology

The human cerebellum is intimately involved in cognitive processing. This talk will focus on two ongoing areas of research that aim to further elucidate the cerebellar role in cognition. First, we explore the role of the cerebellum in cognition by evaluating deficits that arise in the setting of focal cerebellar lesions. Specifically we evaluate lesion location across 195 pediatric patients that had a tumor resected from the cerebellum. We show that the most severe cognitive sequelae occur when lesions disrupt the flow of information between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex, involving the deep nuclei and superior cerebellar peduncles. Moreover, a lesion-associated network analysis highlights the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus as a possible mediator of this cerebro-cerebellar communication that underlies cognition. Next, we describe an ongoing randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial aimed at evaluating whether noninvasive neuromodulation of the human cerebellum may impact cognition. We evaluate the effect of daily midline intermittent theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation across three groups of individuals that have in common cognitive impairment: patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and autism.