Investigating in-vivo function of Zebrin-II stripes of the cerebellum using tactile stimulation and prediction.

The functional organization of the cerebellar cortex is largely unexplored in-vivo. However, connectivity studies suggest it is organized in successive Zebrin-II positive and negative stripes that receive descending signals from the cerebrum and ascending input from the peripheral nervous system respectively. To examine this stripe-based functional organization we used a tactile-stimulation experiment with actual (bottom-up) and predicted (top-down) stimulation at 7T. This paradigm gives reliable responses to predicted and experienced stimuli. Our fMRI results suggest that there is a spatial separation in the cerebellum between these two processes in line with the hypothesised relation between function and Zebrin-II stripes.