Radiolab Song of the Cerebellum
106 snips
Jan 30, 2026 
Rachel Gross, science journalist who lived through a cerebellar stroke, tells a personal quest into what the cerebellum really does. She traces its surprising ties to language, emotion, social attunement, and singing. Short scenes move from karaoke failure to choir rehearsals, surgical choices to brain wiring and evolution, all probing how movement and thought might share a neural conductor.
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Karaoke Night That Revealed A Stroke
- Rachel Gross tells how karaoke froze mid-chorus and her handwriting slurred after a bleed in her cerebellum.
- She was told surgeons could remove part of it and she'd still be herself, but recovery felt more complex.
Cerebellum: More Than Motor Control
- The cerebellum, long labeled a motor-only structure, is massively connected to the neocortex and influences cognition.
- Jeremy Schmahmann calls the old motor-only view outmoded and says there's been a paradigm shift.
Highways Between Upstairs And Downstairs
- Tracer studies in monkeys show cortical areas for language, emotion, and executive control send signals into the cerebellum.
- The cerebellum also sends information back, forming two-way circuits with 'thinking' brain regions.
