Today’s featured article on Wikipedia is a fantastic piece on one of the most mysterious areas of the brain – the cerebellum.
There are more connections in the cerebellum than in the whole of the rest of the brain put together, yet it is still not clear what sort of contribution it makes to thought and behaviour.
It is known that it is essential for movement, as damage to this area can produce tremor and other movement disorders – such as a condition called cerebellar ataxia.
Curiously, it also seems to be involved in almost every other form of mental activity.
If you want a reliable way of annoying anyone presenting results from a brain scanning study, put your hand up and ask what the activity in the cerebellum signifies. It almost always occurs, but is very difficult to explain with our current understanding.
The Wikipedia article is a great summary of current knowledge though, and gives an insight into an area where neuroscience is increasingly going to focus its sights as time goes on.
Link to Wikipedia article on the cerebellum.
Mind Hacks 