Folia of human cerebellum: structure and variations

Abstract

The aim of the study was to describe possible variations in size and shape of folia of human cerebellum to determine morphological and morphometric characteristics of normal cerebellar folia. Cadaveric material (cerebella of 50 people) was studied. It was shown that cerebellar folia aren’t uniform in size and shape. We developed the original classification of cerebellar folia. The folia were divided into 3 types according to folium height (small, medium and large) and width (small, medium and large). 9 anatomical variants of cerebellar folia were described in accordance with the shape and ratio of height and width of the folia. Different cerebellar lobules and branches have different folial variants, but all described folial types and variants may be found in a single cerebellum. The results of the study may be helpful to distinguish normal and abnormal cerebellar folia to diagnose cerebellar malformations in clinical neuroimaging and morphological studies of cerebellum.