The definitions used in this glossary of terminology either have been provided by the authors of the articles, or have been extracted wholly or in part, or paraphrased from the following sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, Charles B. Clayman, MD, Medical Editor, Random House, New York, 1989; Biotechnology from A to Z, 2d Edition, William Bains, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; A Dictionary of Genetics, 6th Edition, Robert C. King and William D. Stansfield, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th and 30th Editions, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2000, 2003; Genes VII, Benjamin Lewin, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2000; The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Volumes I and II, Stacey L. Blachford, Ed., Thomson Learning, New York, New York, 2002; The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1997; Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd Edition, Bruce Alberts, et al., Garland Publishing, 1994; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition, 1966; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1991.

DEFINITION:

cerebellum

The part of the metencephalon that occupies the posterior cranial fossa behind the brain stem and is concerned in the coordination of movements. It is a fissured mass consisting of a body, comprising a narrow middle strip (the vermis) and two lateral lobes (the hemispheres), connected with the brain stem by three pairs (caudal, middle, and rostral) of peduncles. Functionally, the cerebellum is subdivided into a cranial (anterior) lobe, which is separated from the caudal (posterior or median) lobe by the primary fissure, which is in turn separated from the flocculonodular lobe by the dorsolateral (posterolateral) fissure.