Enhanced activation of cerebellar regions during pitch discrimination in humans: a PET study

Abstract

Consistent with this hypothesis we have previously shown using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) that ‘finger’ regions of the human cerebellum are more active during tactile discrimination tasks than during finger movement alone [1]. [...]they were required to indicate subjective pitch discriminability at the end of each scan involving a Pitch Discrimination condition. [...]before and after a scan involving a PD condition, subjects performed a test-retest Pitch Discrimination run of the same performance level as that in the corresponding scan, during which mouse button responses were acquired. Results Conditional contrast analysis of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) data outlined activation during the Passive Listening condition in both the auditory cortices and the cerebellum (deep floccular/parafloccular regions, z = -48, [4]), however, the Pitch Discrimination conditions were associated with significant increases in both cerebellar activation volumes and magnitudes.