The Cerebellum: Your ‘Little Brain’ plays a huge role in movement, Pt. 1
Cerebellum translates to little brain in latin, but there’s nothing small about its role in movement and learning. It’s in charge of the A, B, Cs of movement:
Accuracy
Balance
Coordination
High-level athletes have finely-tuned cerebellar function – picture an athlete who moves fluidly, efficiently, seemingly effortlessly. They have a super healthy, high-definition function between their cerebellum and the rest of their brain and body.
The great news is that we can ALL unlock greater levels of performance by activating this part of the brain intentionally.
Super high-level anatomy
The cerebellum sits at the back of the brain, between the cerebral cortex and the brainstem
It takes up roughly 10% of the brain’s space but contains 80% of the brain’s neurons. Something that dense must be important, right?
Location of the cerebellum. The colors represent different lobes (green: posterior; purple: anterior; orange: flocculonodular).
It’s primary functions are:
Coordination and Precision: It detects and corrects errors with a goal of making our movement as efficient and as accurate as possible. The cerebellum gets input from the forebrain (where the movement plan is created) and compares that against input coming from our musculoskeletal system. If there are gaps between planned and actual movement, it communicates across these same systems to correct errors.
Balance: The cerebellum works very closely with our vestibular system (the core of our balance system) to understand our relationship to gravity and to make immediate adjustments in our body to keep us upright (or upside down if that’s the goal). Together they answer: Which way is UP and how do I avoid falling on my head?
Muscle Tone: The cerebellum plays a role in regulating muscle tone of our extensors (spinal muscles, deltoids, lats, glutes, hamstrings).¹ Because it regulates tone — reducing tonicity and/or facilitating the muscles — activating the cerebellum can increase range of motion in the body AND improve muscular output… it could help you jump higher.
Posture & Stability: The cerebellum regulates extensor muscle tone as noted above, but in particular, it communicates with muscles that are involved in reactive stability that help keep us stable.² And a stable midline enables more movement and force production from the extremities… it could help you run faster.
Motor Learning and Skill Acquisition: Learning new skills, from writing the alphabet to doing a double-back, relies heavily on the cerebellum. It stores and refines motor memories (along with other areas of the brain), allowing us to perform complex movements with greater efficiency over time.
That’s A LOT!
I hope it’s enough to convince you that the cerebellum deserves a lot of attention and is something to consider training ON PURPOSE for better athletic performance. Stay tuned for posts where I’ll share exercises to activate the cerebellum!
Amazing and profound change is possible by training your brain, and I’d love to help you find MORE… flexibility, balance, power, speed or help you be free of limiting pain and stiffness.
If you want to keep learning about the power of Neuroperformance Training, add your name and email below & follow me on Instagram. For coaching and clinics, you can reach me at levelupneuro@gmail.com or contact me via this form.
1: “Muscle tone and movement” and “The cerebellum and its disorders” in Lance, James W., and James G. McLeod. A physiological approach to clinical neurology. Butterworth-Heinemann (2013)
2: Zhang, XY., Wang, JJ. & Zhu, JN. Cerebellar fastigial nucleus: from anatomic construction to physiological functions. cerebellum ataxias 3, 9 (2016)