The cerebellum has long been regarded as essential only for the coordination of voluntary motor activity and motor learning. Anatomical, clinical and neuroimaging studies have led to a paradigm shift in the understanding of the cerebellar role in nervous system function, demonstrating that the cerebellum appears integral also to the modulation of cognition and emotion. The search to understand the cerebellar contribution to cognitive processing has increased interest in exploring the role of the cerebellum in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders. Principal among these is Alzheimer’s disease. Here we review an already sizeable existing literature on the neuropathological, structural and functional neuroimaging studies of the cerebellum in Alzheimer’s disease. We consider these observations in the light of the cognitive deficits that characterize Alzheimer’s disease and in so doing we introduce a new perspective on its pathophysiology and manifestations. We propose an integrative hypothesis that there is a cerebellar contribution to the cognitive and neuropsychiatric deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. We draw on the dysmetria of thought theory to suggest that this cerebellar component manifests as deficits in modulation of the neurobehavioural deficits. We provide suggestions for future studies to investigate this hypothesis and, ultimately, to establish a comprehensive, causal clinicopathological disease model.

中文翻译：

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小脑在阿尔茨海默氏病中的作用：评估其在认知功能减退中的作用

长期以来，小脑一直被认为仅对自愿运动活动和运动学习的协调至关重要。解剖学，临床和神经影像学研究导致对小脑在神经系统功能中的作用的理解发生了范式转变，表明小脑在认知和情绪调节中似乎也必不可少。试图了解小脑对认知加工的贡献的探索已引起人们对探索小脑在神经退行性疾病和神经精神疾病中的作用的兴趣。其中主要的是阿尔茨海默氏病。在这里，我们回顾关于阿尔茨海默氏病小脑的神经病理学，结构和功能性神经影像学研究的已有文献。我们根据表征阿尔茨海默氏病的认知缺陷来考虑这些观察结果，因此我们就其病理生理学和表现引入了新的观点。我们提出一个综合假设，即小脑对阿尔茨海默氏病的认知和神经精神病学缺陷有贡献。我们利用思想理论的异常来表明该小脑成分表现为神经行为缺陷调节中的缺陷。我们为今后的研究提供建议，以调查这一假设，并最终建立一个全面的，因果关系的临床病理疾病模型。我们提出一个综合假设，即小脑对阿尔茨海默氏病的认知和神经精神病学缺陷有贡献。我们利用思想理论的异常来表明该小脑成分表现为神经行为缺陷调节中的缺陷。我们为今后的研究提供建议，以调查这一假设，并最终建立一个全面的，因果关系的临床病理疾病模型。我们提出一个综合假设，即小脑对阿尔茨海默氏病的认知和神经精神病学缺陷有贡献。我们利用思想理论的异常来表明该小脑成分表现为神经行为缺陷调节中的缺陷。我们为今后的研究提供建议，以调查这一假设，并最终建立一个全面的，因果关系的临床病理疾病模型。