Lau Møller Andersen

Project title

The (re-)integration of the cerebellum

What is your project about?

The aim of my project is to make sure that we consider the cerebellum when aiming to understand human action and cognition. I specifically propose that the cerebellum enables proactive action by building sensory expectations. An example: you are ascending a flight of stairs engaged in conversation with someone. On top of the stairs you take another step, but there are no more steps. Why is the messing step almost sensory salient, when there in fact is no external sensory input? The notion is that the cerebellum builds sensory expectations – there will be one more step – and when reality does not match one’s expectations, the cerebellum sounds the alarm, giving you the opportunity to proactively adjust such that you do not have to trip before realising something is wrong. An exciting follow-up question is: is the cerebellum also enabling proactive cognition in a similar manner?

How did you become interested in your particular field of research?

The cerebellum kept popping up in my studies even though the ruling notion at the time was that it is impossible to detect the neural activity of the cerebellum using magnetoencephalography (MEG) – the brain scanning method that I use. In the end, it was impossible for me to keep ignoring it, and when I realised that it had a long history of being ignored, also due to its purported primitiveness, there was no turning back. Since then, several studies besides my own have been published showing that it is indeed possible to detect the electrophysiological activity of the cerebellum, that it is involved in nearly all cognition that the cerebrum is involved in, and that the surface area of the cerebellum is 80 % of the surface area of the cerebrum. It is the surface area that matters for neural activity – so it is not that small.

What are the scientific challenges and perspectives in your project?

The biggest challenge to my project is that so little is known about how the cerebellum is involved in cognition, and therefore only unconnected data points exist. At the same time, this is an exciting perspective given that my overarching claim: that the the cerebellum enables proactive action and proactive cognition, is a potential way of connecting these data points into a cohesive theory. Another challenge is that the misunderstanding that it is impossible to measure the electrophysiology of the cerebellum non-invasively still prevails. Thus, there are barriers to surmount, but those barriers offer a perspective in themselves. I may be able to prevent more textbooks being written including the misguided claims that the cerebellum is primitive, and that its electrophysiology cannot be measured.

What is your estimate of the impact, which your project may have to society in the long term?

In popular science and in research fields that rely on brain science to legitimise some of their claims, the point is often made that the cerebellum is a primitive reptile brain, which does not interact with our emotional midbrain and our reasonable cerebrum. This simplified notion still holds great sway over people’s minds. A curious example: my daughter has just begun at a day nursery – and here, the leader shared with me a neuropsychological book, which ironically began with the claim that the brain is hierarchically built, and that the cerebellum is responsible for the sensing, primitive parts. I hope that I through dissemination, popular and professional, can dispel this notion and put in its place a nuanced notion of the cerebellum and of the brain in its entirety. Finally, I also hope that a better understanding of Parkinson’s disease and the role of the cerebellum can be reached.

Which impact do you expect the Sapere Aude programme will have on your career as a researcher?

To become part of the Sapere Aude: DFF Starting Grant programme offers me the opportunity to establish myself as a research leader during a point of my career where I have more ideas than I can bring to life myself. It also provides opportunity for establishing and re-establishing both local and international collaborations, among other places in Germany and in Sweden. This strengthens the internationalisation of my research and of Danish research and creates fertile ground for me establishing a new field of research, where it becomes clear that the cerebellum must be integrated in our models to understand human action and cognition. In itself, it is also recognition and important backing that assures me that I have ideas that are worth exploring.

Background and personal life

I am a calm Jutlander living in Aarhus with my partner, my small daughter and my big German Shepherd. I grew up in Aalborg, which you will be able to tell hearing me speak. During my free time I practice taekwondo, a Korean martial art, and I am a very active member of the local club. I am persistent – my partner would say stubborn – and that is probably what has more or less secured me a place within academia. I have lived in England, the Netherlands, the United States and Sweden as part of my academic career, but now I enjoy being back with my feet on solid Jutlandish ground again, while at the same time being spurred on by my international network to go travelling, both in a figurative and in a literal manner.