Abstract
Animal experiments have demonstrated that the vast majority of vertical gaze-velocity Purkinje cells in the cerebellar floccular lobe, whose firing rate is modulated during vertical smooth pursuit eye movements, show a preference for downward pursuit. Here we validate the functional vertical asymmetry of the cerebellar flocculus in humans using functional magnetic resonance imaging by demonstrating a significantly higher activation of the floccular lobe for downward than for upward pursuit. The findings corroborate our recent hypothesis on the pathogenesis of cerebellar downbeat nystagmus.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to K. Ogston for critically reading the manuscript. This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Gl 342/1-3; BR 639/6-3), Swiss National Science Foundation (31-63465.00/#3200BO-1054534), and Betty and David Koetser Foundation for Brain Research.
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Glasauer, S., Stephan, T., Kalla, R. et al. Up–Down Asymmetry of Cerebellar Activation During Vertical Pursuit Eye Movements. Cerebellum 8, 385–388 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-009-0109-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-009-0109-5