Neurochemical deficits in the cerebellar vermis in child o!spring of parents with bipolar

Recent investigations of the neural aspects ofemotion have discovered that in addition to regu-lating motorcoordination, balance, andspeech, thecerebellum may play an important role in theregulation and monitoring of emotion (1). This isevident by affective disturbances following damage(2) or experimental manipulation (3) to the cere-bellum. The cerebellum has rich bidirectional con-nections to key regions in the cerebral cortex thatmodulate emotion (4), as suggested by examinationof cerebellar projections (5) and demonstration ofreducedcerebralgraymatterinfrontal,parietal,andtemporal cortices following cerebellar damage (6).Based on these studies, theories of emotion regula-tion have involved complex interactions betweencortical and cerebellar neural circuits during anemotional experience.In studying the functional topography of thecerebellum, medial portions of lobule VII of thecerebellum appear to be particularly involved inthe regulation of certain emotional processes andto connect to limbic circuitry (7). Disruption ofthe vermis has been associated with a phenomenon