The basal ganglia and the cerebellum in human emotion

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The basal ganglia (BG) and the cerebellum historically have been relegated to a functional role in producing or modulating motor output. Recent research, however, has emphasized the importance of these subcortical structures in multiple functional domains, including affective processes such as emotion recognition, subjective feeling elicitation and reward valuation. The pathways through the thalamus that connect the BG and cerebellum directly to each other and with extensive regions of the cortex provide a structural basis for their combined influence on limbic function. By regulating cortical oscillations to guide learning and strengthening rewarded behaviors or thought patterns to achieve a desired goal state, these regions can shape the way an individual processes emotional stimuli. This review will discuss the basic structure and function of the BG and cerebellum and propose an updated view of their functional role in human affective processing.</jats:p>

Basal ganglia and cerebellar contributions to vocal emotion processing: a high resolution fMRI study

“…In fact, given their tripartite functional compartmentalization, whereby each basal ganglia (BG) is linked to either the motor, associative or limbic cortex (Alexander andCrutcher 1990, Lambert, Zrinzo et al 2012), there is every reason to suppose that these structures play a major role in emotional processing in humans. This assertion is reinforced by both the BG's intrinsic function and their functional and effective connectivity with the rest of the brain (Pierce and Péron 2020).…”

“…In fact, given their tripartite functional compartmentalization, whereby each basal ganglia (BG) is linked to either the motor, associative or limbic cortex (Alexander and Crutcher 1990, Lambert, Zrinzo et al 2012), there is every reason to suppose that these structures play a major role in emotional processing in humans. This assertion is reinforced by both the BG’s intrinsic function and their functional and effective connectivity with the rest of the brain (Pierce and Péron 2020). There is growing evidence for the involvement of the BG in emotional processing, especially for emotions conveyed by the human voice (i.e., emotional prosody), not only directly, but also through their connections with structures known to be involved in emotional processing, such as the superior frontal and temporal gyri, the amygdala and the cerebellum (Thomasson, Saj et al 2019).…”

“…Furthermore, the BG and cerebellum may analyse temporal patterns in acoustic stimuli to extract salient emotional cues to feedback to cortex. Nevertheless, the way in which these subcortical and cortical structures exhibit coupling (or decoupling) in order to allow the emergence of a cognitive process such as emotional prosody recognition (i.e., functional integration) remains largely unexplored in affective neuroscience, especially the patterns of connectivity between the BG and the cerebellum, which should play a critical role in vocal emotion decoding (Thomasson, Saj et al 2019, Pierce and Péron 2020). So far, we spoke about the BG as a whole concept without differentiating their abovementioned subparts and functional sub-territories.…”

“…So far, we spoke about the BG as a whole concept without differentiating their abovementioned subparts and functional sub-territories. As for the subthalamic nucleus, the BG can be divided in at least three functional compartments relative to their cortical efferences: motor, associative and limbic (Alexander and Crutcher 1990, Lambert, Zrinzo et al 2012, Pierce and Péron 2020). In the present study, we were specifically interested in the limbic BG due to the emotional nature of the stimuli presented to our participants.…”

“…In the present study, we were specifically interested in the limbic BG due to the emotional nature of the stimuli presented to our participants. More specifically, BG regions of interest were the striatum, the globus pallidus (internal and external parts) and the subthalamic nucleus (Schneider, Habel et al 2003, Wager, Barrett et al 2008, Kotz, Schwartze et al 2009, Péron, Frühholz et al 2015, Pierce and Péron 2020). These BG regions also play a critical role in selecting a relevant response pattern nd inhibiting irrelevant ones̶ and in reward feedback and anticipation (Pierce and Péron 2020).…”