Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/20267/ How is this possible? Ipsilateral/intra-cerebellar links are sparse (if present), but early electrophys found input to cerebellum from cochlea/olivary complex/IC, and fMRI shows robust cerebellar auditory responses. Language regions may emerge from auditory areas, as in cortex. 030
Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/20266/ The presence of a language-selective region in EG’s right cerebellum suggests contralateral neocortical inputs (long thought to ‘set up’ cerebellum) aren't a prerequisite for cerebellar functional specialization. Maybe the cerebellum exhibits some degree of self-organization. 150
Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/20265/ Surprisingly, EG’s right cerebellum still responds to language despite lacking left-hemispheric neocortical inputs. One region even shows strongly selective language response. Its language selectivity is even comparable to the most selective cerebellar region in the TD group! 120
Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/20264/ EG's cerebellar language responses are left-lateralized - expected given her rightward neocortical lateralization. Her language-dominant (left) hemisphere largely preserves the topography/response profile of TD's language-dominant (right) cerebellum, despite the opposite hemi! 130
Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/20263/ We tested this hypothesis in an individual (EG) missing most of her left temporal lobe—which is critical for language—likely from birth. @gretatuckute.bsky.social has a beautiful paper characterizing her reorganized neocortical language network doi.org/10.1016/j.ne...! 161
Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/20262/ The cerebellum is engaged during language tasks, and @coltoncasto.bsky.social shows certain subregions are language-selective. How do these regions emerge? It has long been argued that cerebellar functional regions and their properties are inherited from contralateral neocortical inputs. 150
Bangjie Wang @bangjiewang.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Excited to share our new preprint on how the cerebellum specializes for language even in the absence of contralateral neocortical inputs, with @aniladmello.bsky.social and our collaborators @evfedorenko.bsky.social, @gretatuckute.bsky.social, @hopekean.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/biorxiv.org 1308
Reposted by Bangjie WangAnila D’Mello @aniladmello.bsky.social · 13/02/2025Check out our paper ‘Ignoring the cerebellum is hindering progress in neuroscience’ in @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social ! With @0xwbj.bsky.social and @amandalebel.bsky.social we quantify the extent of cerebellar exclusion in the neuroimaging literature and discuss reasons/fixessciencedirect.comIgnoring the cerebellum is hindering progress in neuroscienceTraditionally considered a motor structure, the cerebellum has been shown to play a key role in several cognitive functions. However, for decades, the… 1198