The paleocerebellum and the integration of behavioral function

The role of the cerebellum in motor function is well documented. Additional data clearly implicate the cerebellum in the regulation of sensory processes and autonomic functions, and more recent findings establish an influence of cerebellar systems on the regulation of emotional and motivational behaviors. The cerebellum provides extensive projections to brainstem and limbic mechanisms that have been implicated in behavioral regulation, and experimental manipulations of the cerebellum have been found to profoundly affect behavioral processes. In the present paper, we review some of these findings and offer a conceptual view of cerebellar function that reconciles these apparently disparate actions. We suggest that the cerebellum exerts functionally similar influences at all levels of sensorimotor and behavioral organization. This model provides a conceptual framework for understanding the behavioral consequences of cerebellar dysfunctions, which we suggest can be viewed as behavioral parallels to the classical cerebellar motor syndromes. Data implicating cerebellar systems in the pathogenesis of developmental disturbances in behavioral processes are also considered in the context of the present conception of cerebellar-behavioral function.