2026/06/10 by Federico d’Oleire Uquillas, Esra Sefik, Jakob Seidlitz +10 · 1 voice
Medicine · Neuroscience · #Fetal and Pediatric Neurological Disorders #Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics #Vestibular and auditory disorders
paper · doi:10.1038/s41593-026-02289-x
openalex publication_date 2026/06/10 · openalex created_date 2026/06/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
The cerebellum contains most of the brain's neurons and supports many functions, yet how it changes with age remains unclear. Here we used three brain imaging studies spanning 47,000 adults and examined how different parts of the cerebellum age and their relation to cognition. We characterized cerebellar aging using volumetry and the T1-weighted/T2-weighted ratio, and corroborated these findings with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging in an independent sample. We show a spatially heterogeneous pattern of aging in which specific association and motor-related regions show steeper relationships with age than other lobules. Greater cerebellar volume was associated with higher cognitive scores with increasing age, suggesting that cerebellar structure may provide brain reserve that helps maintain function despite aging. In patients with Alzheimer's disease, cerebellar volume was linked to cognition in individuals with lower amyloid burden, especially in those carrying two copies of the APOE-ε4 risk gene. This supports a threshold-reserve model, in which the cerebellum helps sustain cognition until pathology becomes widespread. These results show that the cerebellum has an active role in healthy cognitive aging and resilience.