Cerebellar contributions to episodic memory encoding as revealed by fMRI

Event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) allows for the comparison of hemodynamic responses evoked by items that are remembered in a subsequent memory task vs. items that are forgotten. In this way, brain regions that assumingly contribute to successful memory encoding have been id...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2007-04, Vol.35 (3), p.1330-1337
Main Authors: Fliessbach, Klaus, Trautner, Peter, Quesada, Carlos M., Elger, Christian E., Weber, Bernd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain
Brain Mapping - methods
Cerebellum - physiology
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Female
Humans
Language
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Medical imaging
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Semantics
Studies
Verbal Learning - physiology
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Summary:Event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) allows for the comparison of hemodynamic responses evoked by items that are remembered in a subsequent memory task vs. items that are forgotten. In this way, brain regions that assumingly contribute to successful memory encoding have been identified, including the left inferior prefrontal cortex (LIPC) and the medial temporal lobe. Although a cerebellar involvement in verbal working memory is well-established, a contribution of the cerebellum to episodic long-term encoding has only sporadically been described, and mechanisms underlying cerebellar memory effects are unclear. We conducted a typical incidental verbal memory fMRI experiment with three different encoding tasks varying the depth of semantic processing. Slice positioning allowed for the coverage of the entire cerebellum. We observed a significant subsequent memory effect within the superior and posterior right cerebellar hemisphere that was task independent. Additionally, we found a different area within the superior right cerebellum displaying a memory effect specifically for semantically processed words and a bilateral cerebellar activation specifically associated with encoding success only for a non-semantic task. Our results suggest that besides its known role in verbal working memory, the cerebellum contributes to episodic long-term encoding and should therefore be considered in future fMRI studies dealing with episodic memory.
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.02.004