Exploring the cerebellar cortical stripes in humans with 7T, motion-corrected, RF-shimmed MRI

Motivation: The cerebellar cortex is organized in stripe-like clusters, similar to the neocortical layers/columns. The cerebellar anatomical complexity and lack of non-invasive methods makes their detection in humans challenging. Goal(s): To determine if the human cerebellum shows stripe-like patterns as observed in animals. Approach: We employed high-resolution, motion-corrected, RF-shimmed, 7T MRI to construct detailed cerebellocortical surfaces. We examined the presence of stripes across fMRI paradigms, their relationship to macrovasculature and variability. We additionally used immunohistochemistry for validation. Results: We observed consistent stripe-like patterns in the human cerebellum. These patterns were not associated with macrovasculature and conformed with immunohistochemistry, indicating a neuronal origin. Impact: Cerebellar stripes are a widely-known functional-organization feature but unreported in humans. Here, we combine motion-corrected, 7T-(f)MRI and immunohistochemistry to demonstrate stripe-like patterns in humans. This may provide a new paradigm for cerebellar function, akin to the discoveries in neocortical layers.