Cerebellum and Fibromyalgia
A growing body of evidence has helped shed light on the involvement of the cerebellum in pain processing and in chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is a complex rheumatological disorder characterized by persistent widespread musculoskeletal pain, accompanied by cognitive dysfunction (often referred to as “fibro-fog”), fatigue, anxiety and mood symptoms, and sleep disturbances. Although its etiology remains unknown, the most widely accepted hypothesis points to an abnormal responsiveness of the central nervous system, known as central sensitization. For this reason, research has mainly focused on the brain, largely neglecting the cerebellum and its potential contribution to symptoms and pathophysiology. However, the cerebellum is anatomically and functionally connected with key cortical and subcortical regions involved in pain processing. Recent structural and functional neuroimaging studies have reported cerebellar morphological alterations, abnormal functional connectivity, and exaggerated responses to painful stimuli in fibromyalgia patients. Taken together, these structural, functional, and connectivity findings suggest that cerebellar abnormalities, if sustained over time, may converge toward a maladaptive plasticity state, resulting in increased vulnerability. In this context, the cerebellum may lose its finely tuned functions, such as modulating sensory input and output and predicting upcoming stimuli, including painful ones. This dysfunction could ultimately lead to an amplification of the sensory, cognitive, and emotional dimensions of pain. Future neuroimaging investigations, along with stimulation studies using non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, may help to further clarify and confirm this still underexplored perspective, potentially opening new therapeutic avenues targeting the cerebellum.

