Cerebellar Cognition and Motor Control

Cerebellum-related neurological disorders such as tremor, ataxia and Parkinson’s disease

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The small brain is not small

The cerebellum, the “small brain”, has nearly 65% of all neurons in the human body, and has 3.5 times of neurons than the cerebrum. The cerebellum is also a highly repetitive structure optimized for parallel processing, therefore is considered as the deep learning machine for human motor and cognitive function. As compared to GPU, the cerebellum only requires less than 10 W of energy to perform all sorts of learning in our brains, yet is able to defeat supercomputers in many domains. However, how the cerebellar works remains largely unknown. The main interest of our lab is to investigate the neuronal coding mechanism of cerebellar cognition and motor control, as well as related disorders such as tremor, ataxia and Parkinson’s disease.

From animal to human: electrophysiological and optical approaches

To investigate the working mechanism of the cerebellum, we applied electrical and optical approaches across animal to human, including in-vivo electrophysiology, intra-cerebral microinfusion, optogenetics, fiber photometry, two-photon calcium imaging and tissue clearing for animal studies, and also cerebellar electrophysiology (EEG), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and diffusion-spectrum imaging (DSI) of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for human electrophysiology and imaging. We hope that these approaches allow us to identify integrated spatial-temporal information (in-vivo optical imaging, and electrophysiology, respectively) of neuronal activities, proof its causality to motor/cognitive behaviors (optogenetics) and apply the mechanism to help patients (clinical electrophysiology and imaging technologies).

New technology development

We also collaborate with experts in Physics and Electrical Engineering domains for next generation technologies, such as superspeed volumetric imaging and non-linear optical imaging. We also developing new clinical tools, such as cerebellar EEG.

Targeting common neurological diseases

We are especially interested in Parkinson’s disease, Essential tremor. The two diseases are the 2nd and the most common movement disorders, respectively. We also work on the cerebellar ataxia, the devastating cerebellar disorder that has no therapy so far.

Our Team