The basal ganglia and the cerebellum in human emotion.

The basal ganglia and the cerebellum historically have been relegated to a functional role in producing or modulating motor output. Recent research, however, has emphasized the importance of these subcortical structures in multiple functional domains, including affective processes such as emotion recognition, subjective feeling elicitation, and reward valuation. Pathways through the thalamus that connect the basal ganglia and cerebellum directly to each other and with extensive regions of cortex provide a structural basis for their combined influence on limbic function. By regulating cortical oscillations to guide learning and strengthening rewarded behavior or thought patterns to achieve a desired goal state, these regions can shape the way an individual processes emotional stimuli. This review will discuss the basic structure and function of the basal ganglia and cerebellum and propose an updated view of their functional role in human affective processing.