Main description:

Leading neuroscientist Dr. Masao Ito advances a detailed and fascinating view of what the cerebellum contributes to brain function. The cerebellum has been seen as primarily involved in coordination of body movement control, facilitating the learning of motor skills such as those involved in walking, riding a bicycle, or playing a piano. The cerebellum is now viewed as an assembly of numerous neuronal machine modules, each of which provides an implicit learning capability to various types of motor control. The cerebellum enables us to unconsciously learn motor skills through practice by forming internal models simulating control system properties of the body parts. Based on these remarkable advances in our understanding of motor control mechanisms of the cerebellum, Ito presents a still larger view of the cerebellum as serving a higher level of brain functions beyond movements, including the implicit part of the thought and cognitive processes that manipulate knowledge. Ito extends his investigation of the cerebellum to discuss neural processes that may be involved implicitly in such complex mental actions as having an intuition, imagination, hallucination, or delusion.

Contents:

Preface viii Chapter 1: Neuronal Circuitry: The Key to Unlocking the Brain 1 Chapter 2: Traditional Views of the Cerebellum 22 Chapter 3: The Cerebellum as a Neuronal Machine 29 Chapter 4: Input and Output Pathways in the Cerebellar Cortex 44 Chapter 5: Inhibitory Interneurons and Glial Cells in the Cerebellar Cortex 51 Chapter 6: Pre- and Post-Cerebellar Neurons 60 Chapter 7: Conjunctive Long-Term Depression (LTD) 69 Chapter 8: Multiplicity and Persistency of Synaptic Plasticity 81 Chapter 9: Network Models 90 Chapter 10: Ocular Reflexes 105 Chapter 11: Somatic and Autonomic Reflexes 121 Chapter 12: Adaptive Control System Models 139 Chapter 13: Voluntary Motor Control 150 Chapter 14: Voluntary Eye Movement 159 Chapter 15: Internal Models for Voluntary Motor Control 167 Chapter 16: Motor Actions and Tool Use 181 Chapter 17: Cognitive Functions 193 Chapter 18: Concluding Thoughts 204 References 213 Index 261