University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: New UNC Study Maps How the Cerebellum Builds the Foundation for Thinking, Moving, and Learning

In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have mapped how a small but mighty part of the brain-the cerebellum-develops in babies and young children. Their recently published study in Nature Communications reveals that this "little brain", once thought to mainly control movement, plays a vital and early role in shaping how we think, learn, and connect with others.

Using over 1,000 high-quality brain scans from children between birth and age five, the research team tracked how the cerebellum communicates with other parts of the brain. Their findings show that from the moment we're born, the cerebellum is not just helping us kick our feet or move our hands—it's also forming deep connections to areas involved in attention, memory, emotion, and language. "The cerebellum is like the brain's quiet conductor," said senior author Dr. Pew-Thian Yap. "It's behind the scenes, but helping orchestrate everything from our first steps to our first words."

The team studied MRI brain scans from 275 healthy children participating in the Baby Connectome Project, a major effort to understand how the human brain grows. They used advanced imaging techniques to track "functional connectivity"-how different brain regions talk to each other—focusing on how the cerebellum links to both basic motor regions and more complex thinking areas of the brain. The cerebellum is far more active and connected in early life than previously thought. Among the key discoveries: cognitive connections from birth - even in newborns, the cerebellum is already linked to brain networks involved in memory, executive function, and language. These connections grow steadily stronger over the first five years.

A clear developmental timeline shows that at first, the cerebellum is mostly wired to control movement and sensation. By age 3, it begins to mirror the adult pattern, increasingly connected to thinking and emotional areas. By age 5, it shows a highly adult-like organization.

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