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Cerebellum and organization of behavior: A comparative-physiological aspect

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Abstract

The ontophylogenetic analysis of morphofunctional peculiarities of the cerebellum shows its extremely high adaptability to the requirements for the organization of the nervous activity of the organism corresponding to the level of its evolutionary development and ecological habitat conditions. The changes of the cerebellum in the course of its onto- and phylogenetic development appear to be more pronounced as compared with other cerebral regions. Depending on the level of the development, revealed are different aspects of the cerebellar integrative activity which contributed, if necessary, a quite new directions of the nervous activity, such as learning and cognition, which demonstrates astonishingly wide limits of the adaptability. This explains that the cerebellum in various vertebrates is considerably different by its shape, location of neurons in the cerebellar cortex, and the main peculiarities of afferent, internal, and efferent pathways. There is a reason to suggest that the future study of these aspects of the cerebellar activity will bring us to a clearer understanding of the cerebellar mechanisms of learning.

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    V. V. Fanardjian

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Fanardjian, V.V. Cerebellum and organization of behavior: A comparative-physiological aspect. J Evol Biochem Phys 36, 235–243 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02737037

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