The cerebellum has three lobes: the anterior lobe, in front of the primary fissure; the posterior lobe, behind it and much larger; and the small flocculonodular lobe, which the posterolateral fissure separates from the posterior lobe. The flocculonodular lobe is the unpaired nodule on the midline with a flocculus on each side. [1][2][3]
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the cerebellar lobes are and what they do.
Opens cut by a side (sagittal) slice through the cerebellum, which holds the cerebellar lobes. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .
Not a separate shape in this atlas; lit: the part that holds it. Lit: the whole cerebellum. The lobes are divisions of the cerebellum’s own folded surface, marked by two fissures, and the BodyParts3D model draws the cerebellum as one shape with neither fissure, so no lobe border is drawn at a guessed line. [1][2]
Lit here: the cerebellum, the part that holds the cerebellar lobes — see it on its own page.
Where it is
Primary fissure: it divides the anterior lobe from the posterior lobe. It crosses the vermis and curves round to the upper surface of the cerebellum. [2][4]
Posterolateral fissure: it separates the flocculonodular lobe from the posterior lobe. [2]
The posterior lobe, below the primary fissure, is much larger than the anterior lobe. [2]
The flocculonodular lobe is small: the nodule, the lowest of the vermis’s nine lobules, and one flocculus on either side of it. [3][4]
Smaller folds divide the lobes further, into ten lobules in all. [1]
What it does
Anterior lobe: unconscious proprioception, the sense of where the body’s parts are that never reaches awareness; its input comes mainly from the spinal cord. [5]
Posterior lobe: important in fine motor coordination; its input comes mainly from the cerebral cortex and from the brainstem, through the reticular formation and the inferior olive. [2]
Flocculonodular lobe: posture, balance and coordinating head and eye movements. It is the only part of the cerebellum that receives fibres straight from the vestibular nerve as well as from the vestibular nuclei, and its output returns to the vestibular nuclei through the inferior cerebellar peduncle. [3]
From the vestibular nuclei, the flocculonodular lobe’s output reaches the vestibulospinal tracts, which keep posture by setting the tone of trunk and limb muscles, and the medial longitudinal fasciculus, which coordinates head and eye movements (the vestibulo-ocular reflex). [3]
Other names
Evolutionary names: archicerebellum for the flocculonodular lobe (the vestibulocerebellum), paleocerebellum for the anterior lobe and neocerebellum for the posterior lobe, the newest part. [5][2][6]
The lobes are an anatomical division across the cerebellum; the functional division into vestibulocerebellum, spinocerebellum and cerebrocerebellum runs lengthwise and matches the lobes only in part (the vestibulocerebellum is the flocculonodular lobe). [7][3]
Size
The model has no shape for the cerebellar lobes itself, so it is not measured here. The cerebellum that holds it measures about 56 mm front to back, 53 mm top to bottom and 106 mm side to side on this model (the box it fits in, not its volume). [8]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.