The cerebellothalamocortical pathway in essential tremor.

The cerebellum is implicated in the pathogenesis of essential tremor (ET). The authors examined the excitability of the cerebellothalamocortical pathway in ET and found it to be normal. Tremor reset occurred with motor cortex stimulation but not with cerebellar stimulation. These findings suggest that the abnormal oscillatory activity in ET does not originate in the cerebellar cortex but are consistent with the abnormal activity being transmitted through the cerebellothalamocortical pathway being driven by abnormal cerebellar afferent input from areas such as the inferior olive.