The cerebellum contains more than 50% of all neurons in the brain and is involved in a broad range of cognitive functions, including social communication and social cognition. Inconsistent atypicalities in the cerebellum have been reported in individuals with autism compared to controls suggesting the limits of categorical case control comparisons. Alternatively, investigating how clinical dimensions are related to neuroanatomical features, in line with the Research Domain Criteria approach, might be more relevant. We hypothesized that the volume of the “cognitive” lobules of the cerebellum would be associated with social difficulties. We analyzed structural MRI data from a large pediatric and transdiagnostic sample (Healthy Brain Network). We performed cerebellar parcellation with a well-validated automated segmentation pipeline (CERES). We studied how social communication abilities—assessed with the social component of the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS)—were associated with the cerebellar structure, using linear mixed models and canonical correlation analysis. In 850 children and teenagers (mean age 10.8 ± 3 years; range 5–18 years), we found a significant association between the cerebellum, IQ and social communication performance in our canonical correlation model. Cerebellar parcellation relies on anatomical boundaries, which does not overlap with functional anatomy. The SRS was originally designed to identify social impairments associated with autism spectrum disorders. Our results unravel a complex relationship between cerebellar structure, social performance and IQ and provide support for the involvement of the cerebellum in social and cognitive processes.

中文翻译：

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了解小脑结构与社交能力之间的关系

小脑包含大脑中 50% 以上的神经元，参与广泛的认知功能，包括社交沟通和社会认知。据报道，自闭症患者与对照组相比，小脑的非典型性不一致，这表明分类病例对照比较的局限性。或者，根据研究领域标准方法研究临床维度与神经解剖学特征的关系可能更相关。我们假设小脑“认知”小叶的体积与社交困难有关。我们分析了来自大型儿科和跨诊断样本（健康大脑网络）的结构 MRI 数据。我们使用经过充分验证的自动分割流程 (CERES) 进行小脑分割。我们使用线性混合模型和典型相关分析，研究了社交沟通能力（通过社交反应量表（SRS）的社交部分进行评估）如何与小脑结构相关联。在 850 名儿童和青少年（平均年龄 10.8 ± 3 岁；范围 5-18 岁）中，我们在典型相关模型中发现小脑、智商和社交沟通表现之间存在显着关联。小脑分区依赖于解剖学边界，与功能解剖学不重叠。SRS 最初旨在识别与自闭症谱系障碍相关的社交障碍。我们的研究结果揭示了小脑结构、社会表现和智商之间的复杂关系，并为小脑参与社会和认知过程提供了支持。