Cerebellum articles from across Nature Portfolio

The extent of cerebellar contributions to non-motor learning remains unclear. Here, authors identify a cortico-cerebellar circuit in primates that plays a causal role in reinforcement-based learning of visuomotor associations.

How the brain transforms reward information into actions remains poorly understood. Here, the authors found that reward expectation and sensorimotor signals are more pronounced in the output of the basal ganglia than its input or the cerebellar cortex, implying that the transformation of reward signals into motor signals is not hierarchically organized.

This Article makes the case for moving motor learning research outside the lab. Tsay and colleagues show that a large-scale citizen science approach can replicate established findings, reconcile conflicting ideas and identify key demographic predictors of successful motor learning.

Monosynaptic cerebellar projections to the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) increase the activity of SNc neurons and striatal dopamine levels. These projections may convey information related to movement initiation, vigor and reward processing.

It is self-evident that consuming alcohol affects brain function and behaviour. What is not clear, however, is how alcohol does so. A new study shows that impairments in balance and motor coordination evoked by low-dose alcohol are mediated not by ethanol itself but by one of its metabolites, which is produced locally by astrocytes in the brain rather than in the liver.