The cerebellum is located in the lower posterior region of the brain, under the cerebrum, and behind the brainstem. Like the cerebrum, it is divided into two hemispheres, and has both white and gray matter.
The cerebellum is responsible for the coordination and smooth execution of our skeleton and skeletal muscle, and is also responsible for equilibrium. While the cerebrum is the part of the brain that forms and sends physical commands, like to kick a ball, or pick up a pencil, the action can not be performed unless something is monitoring the body’s actual position and comparing it with what the cerebrum’s intentions are.
This is the job of the cerebellum; when a movement is conducted, sensory neurons send information to the cerebellum about what the body is actually doing, and then the cerebellum compares it’s positioning and skeleton-muscular contraction to what is going on in the outside environment and what the body should be doing. Once the cerebellum processes this information, and finds that something is not going as commanded, it orders the motor neurons to smooth out the muscle functioning, resulting in more coordinated movement.
All of the work of the cerebellum is done subconsciously, and in milliseconds, so unless there is something wrong with the cerebellum, the recoordination of the body’s movement is never noticed.
The cerebellum controls equilibrium by processing information from the equilibrium apparatus which is found in the inner ear, and is joined to the cerebellum through special fibers.
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