It has mysterious functions (partly). It lives in the darkness, in the posterior cranial fossa. It turns on, hidden behind the great cerebral emispheres. It is also called forward controller. It has a wonderful power: it checks beforehand what the brain is going to do. The Latins named it cerebellum. 

We celebrate it with a video, during the World Prematurity Day: a popular video that is our tribute to the knowledge about newborns and that important organ that is so vulnerable in preterm babies.

Preterm newborns’ cerebellum could develop hemorrhage quite frequently: preterm birth may cause a meaningful delay in its maturity, but it has good recovery chances after being damaged. Its development and its neurons production inside the external granulation fabric continue until the 7th month after birth, followed by these neurons’ migration to create links with the brain, but these are only small evidences of its potentiality.

Luca A. Ramenghi
Neonatal Intensive Care and Neonatal Pathology Unit Chief Manager
Gaslini Pediatric Hospital