LIBERA SICILIANO

PhD Graduate

PhD program:: XXXIII



Thesis title: Unravelling the social role of the human cerebellum: from cerebellar diseases to Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Over last decades, consensus has been reached about the role of the cerebellum in social cognition(Van Overwalle et al., 2020).The occurrence of emotional and mentalizing disturbances in patients with various types of cerebellar diseases, that impact on their social skills, has been documented (Clausi et al., 2019a; Olivito et al., 2019; Clausi et al., 202). At the same time, structural and functional cerebellar alterations have been frequently reported to be relevant for the onset of the main social and behavioural difficulties arising in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), entailing both emotional and Theory of Mind dysfunctions (D’Mello et al., 2015; Olivito et al., 2017). Nevertheless, a detailed social cognition profile disentangled in its constituents, and postulations on the cerebellar specific role in each of those, have not been clearly defined in both the aforementioned conditions. From a theoretical point of view, it has been hypothesized that the typical cerebellar role in adaptive control and predictive and sequential coding of motor and cognitive functions, that culminate in the generation of internal models, could also be extended to social behavior, perhaps shaping the phenomenology of both cerebellar pathologies and ASD (Leggio and Molinari, 2015). If that’s true, some overlaps in both social cognition profiles and cerebellar structural and functional organization may be found when comparing such conditions. Thus, the general aim of the PhD project reported in the current thesis was to elucidate, by means of an integrated behavioral and neuroimaging approach, the cerebellar involvement in specific aspects of Social Cognition and to clarify the role of cerebellar-cerebral circuits in affecting the social functioning of patients with degenerative cerebellar diseases and in ASD’s pathogenesis. As reported in the results of the different studies described in the thesis, further prove on the importance of including the cerebellum in the “social brain network” was gained, corroborating the specific involvement of the cerebellar lobule Crus II in mediating ToM abilities. In addition, we provided additional hypotheses on the specific role implemented by the cerebellum in social processing, whose fluid, optimized and adaptive functioning is mediated by the constant coordination between the cerebellum and structurally and functionally connected cortical and subcortical areas. Our findings are in line with the “sequence detection theory” developed by Leggio and colleagues (2011; 2015), according to which the cerebellum produces internal models of mental processes that occur during social interactions and for which the prediction of sequential events is crucial. The cerebellar operational mode that we propose constitutes a new perspective on the role of the cerebellum in social functioning, sheding further light on the impact of social problems on the quality of life of patients with cerebellar diseases and on the pathogenesis of ASD.

Research products

  • 11573/1676471 - 2023 - The cerebellum gets social: Evidence from an exploratory study of cerebellar, neurodevelopmental, and psychiatric disorders (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; BAIOCCO, ROBERTO; DELLE CHIAIE, ROBERTO; LAGHI, FIORENZO; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1676467 - 2023 - The role of the cerebellum in sequencing and predicting social and nonsocial events in patients with bipolar disorder (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; URBINI, NICOLE; DELLE CHIAIE, ROBERTO; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1659048 - 2022 - 'Mens sana in corpore sano': the emerging link of motor reserve with motor and cognitive abilities and compensatory brain networks in SCA2 patients. (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; URBINI, NICOLE; SILVERI, MARIA CATERINA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1083842 - 2018 - Development of a psychiatric disorder linked to cerebellar lesions (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1161987 - 2018 - Evidence of cerebellar involvement in the onset of a manic state (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1212615 - 2019 - Depression disorder in patients with cerebellar damage. Awareness of the mood state (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CLAUSI, SILVIA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1676036 - 2022 - The cerebellum is a key structure in the neural network for mentalizing: an MRI study in the Behavioral Variant of Fron-totemporal Dementia (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1225955 - 2019 - The cerebellar predictions for social interactions. Theory of mind abilities in patients with degenerative cerebellar atrophy (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CLAUSI, SILVIA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1685557 - 2023 - The rising role of cognitive reserve and associated compensatory brain networks in spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; URBINI, NICOLE; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1315095 - 2019 - Non-linear spelling in writing after a pure cerebellar lesion (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1315073 - 2019 - From cerebellar alterations to mood disorders: A systematic review (01g Articolo di rassegna (Review))
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1408317 - 2021 - Does the cerebellar sequential theory explain spoken language impairments? A literature review (01g Articolo di rassegna (Review))
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA; CLAUSI, SILVIA
  • 11573/1381151 - 2020 - Functional changes of mentalizing network in SCA2 patients: novel insights into understanding the social cerebellum (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; CLAUSI, SILVIA; ROMANO, SILVIA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1385006 - 2020 - Cerebello-cortical alterations linked to cognitive and social problems in patients with spastic paraplegia type 7: a preliminary study (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; CLAUSI, SILVIA; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1434119 - 2020 - Consensus paper: cerebellum and social cognition (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CLAUSI, SILVIA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1540970 - 2021 - Comparison of cerebellar grey matter alterations in bipolar and cerebellar patients: evidence from Voxel-based analysis (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; PANCHERI, CORINNA; PANFILI, MATTEO; DELLE CHIAIE, ROBERTO; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1522592 - 2021 - The neurobiological underpinning of the social cognition impairments in patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (01a Articolo in rivista)
    CLAUSI, SILVIA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; ROMANO, SILVIA; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1572583 - 2021 - The cerebellum is linked to theory of mind alterations in autism. A direct clinical and MRI comparison between individuals with autism and cerebellar neurodegenerative pathologies (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; LAGHI, FIORENZO; BAIOCCO, ROBERTO; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1613798 - 2020 - Implicit vs. Explicit Emotion Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Opinion on the Role of the Cerebellum (01a Articolo in rivista)
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; CLAUSI, SILVIA
  • 11573/1572603 - 2021 - Aberrant cerebello-cerebral connectivity in remitted bipolar patients 1 and 2: new insight into understanding the cerebellar role in mania and hypomania (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; SICILIANO, LIBERA; PANCHERI, CORINNA; PANFILI, MATTEO; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1659052 - 2022 - Cerebellum and emotion in social behavior (02a Capitolo o Articolo)
    CLAUSI, SILVIA; SICILIANO, LIBERA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1659050 - 2022 - The cerebellum gains weight! A systematic review of alterations in cerebellar volume and cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity in individuals with eating disorders. (01g Articolo di rassegna (Review))
    SICILIANO, LIBERA; OLIVITO, GIUSY; LEGGIO, MARIA
  • 11573/1659046 - 2022 - Theory of mind profile and cerebellar alterations in remitted bipolar disorder 1 and 2: a comparison study (01a Articolo in rivista)
    OLIVITO, GIUSY; LUPO, MICHELA; SICILIANO, LIBERA; PANCHERI, CORINNA; PANFILI, MATTEO; PIGNATELLI, FRANCA; DELLE CHIAIE, ROBERTO; LEGGIO, MARIA

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