What tasks does the human cerebellum contribute to and how does it work? Which cognitive and emotional processes does the cerebellum support? And how might placebo effects play a role? The research of Prof. Dagmar Timmann seeks answers to these questions.
Prof. Dagmar Timmann is Head of the Experimental Neurology and the Ataxia Clinic at the University Hospital Essen
“There are good reasons to assume that the cerebellum contributes to placebo effects, but there has been astonishingly little research on this.”
Prof. Dagmar Timmann, Head of Experimental Neurology and the Ataxia Clinic at the University Hospital Essen
I am a clinical neuroscientist, and my working hours are divided between an outpatient clinic for people with ataxia disorders and my work in the lab. I studied medicine and am a neurology consultant, but for many years I have predominantly focused on research. My clinical and scientific work are closely interlinked.
Ataxias are disorders that mainly affect the cerebellum. In my scientific work, I am interested in what the cerebellum does and how it works. In my working group, we therefore examine people with various different diseases involving the cerebellum, frequently hereditary diseases. From the deficits we observe, we are able to draw conclusions about why the cerebellum is actually needed. We also use imaging techniques, especially magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We use MRI to determine exactly which areas of the cerebellum are affected in patients.
However, we also examine healthy people using functional MRI (fMRI), and look at when and which areas of the cerebellum are active when people perform certain tasks as well as how the cerebellum interacts with other brain areas. For this, we are able to use an MRI machine with a particularly strong magnet (7 Tesla MRI) at the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ELH) in Essen.
Prof. Dagmar Timmann: the fascinating tasks of the cerebellum
How I settled on this research focus:
It was a coincidence! I come from the baby boomer generation. When I finished my studies, it was really hard to find a job. My first role was a six-month post as a resident doctor at the Neurology Clinic at the University Hospital Essen. I had studied in Tübingen, and shortly after I started my job in Essen, the clinic was taken over by Prof. Hans-Christoph Diener, who had previously worked in Tübingen. His research area at the time was the functioning of the cerebellum. So Prof. Diener led me to the topic, and I have continued to work on it (nowadays here in Essen), with unabated joy, ever since (and it’s been over 30 years!).
Why I find placebo research so fascinating:
For a long time, the cerebellum was linked almost exclusively to motor tasks, so controlling balance and coordinating movement, as well as motor learning. But in the last few years, we’ve learned that the cerebellum does much more than this. In fact, it probably supports almost all tasks of the rest of the brain, so also cognition and controlling emotions, as well as pain.
It is possible that all of these tasks are based on a similar contribution of the cerebellum: and this is somehow related to its ability to make predictions. Placebo effects also have a lot to do with predictions. So examining how the cerebellum contributes to placebo effects is a wonderful way to further demonstrate and better understand what contribution the cerebellum makes to non-motor tasks.
What brings me joy in life (both professional and private):
It gives me great pleasure to read up on things at my leisure, to link my own results to other findings in the literature, and – this is the most joyful thing – to suddenly detect new associations. Even if progress is usually very slow, when a solution suddenly appears before my eyes, it’s so enjoyable. This happens not only in my scientific work but also when I’m doing my teaching preparation and when I’m diagnosing patients in the ataxia clinic. I am lucky to have a job that has consistently brought me great joy for many years!
In my private life, I like going to the weekly market in Essen-Rüttenscheid, drinking a latte at Mörder in Borsigstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, and I love having breakfast at Cron & Lanz in Göttingen.