The Involvement of the Cerebellum in Social Behavior

  The regulation of our emotions and our social behavior is mainly mediated by the limbic system. This subcortical region is associated with motivation, reward, and pleasure. However, several investigations have indicated that the cerebellum, a structure associated with motor functions, also plays a decisive role in these processes. In a study with mice, researchers found that the cerebellum helps control the brain’s reward circuitry. In addition, a direct connection between the cerebellum and the ventral tegmental area (VTA) was found. This region is involved in reward processing and encoding. The results of the study highlighted that the cerebellum plays a…