The role of the cerebellum in motor imagery tasks involving tools

In everyday life we often simulate actions in order to make decisions about how to act in the environment. For example we can imagine ourselves running down a hall to escape from a building on fire, we can imagine ourselves playing a sport after watching a champion playing on the TV, and we can imagine packing our luggage before going on a trip to estimate the time it would take to really do it. In the past few years researchers have worked on defining the neural mechanisms underlying motor imagery tasks. This research has shown two main findings. The first is that these tasks normally activate regions of the motor cortex that are normally activated during real actions. The second is that tasks involving simply viewing tools, without explicit instructions to act, also recruit motor-related regions that are activated during real and imagined actions toward tools. Although cerebellar activation has been consistently found in these experiments, its role in motor imagery tasks and tools has not been investigated. Furthermore specific cerebellar loci of activations for these particular tasks are still unknown. This dissertation aims to understand the role of the cerebellum in motor imagery involving tools. A greater understanding of the cerebellar organization is important to define the neural mechanisms underlying motor imagery tasks.