After my ataxia, something very unusual started happening to me. When I shared it with my doctors, they laughed and dismissed it as meaningless or “just psychological.” But I knew there had to be more to it, so I kept observing and researching. Now, I want to share it with you.
My Experience
About a year after my ataxia, I began to notice something strange during my exercises. Out of nowhere, an old memory would suddenly surface. It could be:
- a forgotten childhood scene,
- a vivid image from a dream,
- or a random moment from the past I hadn’t thought of in years.
What made it so peculiar was that these were memories I wasn’t consciously recalling. They seemed completely gone from my mind—until, suddenly, they were there again, as if a door had been opened.
I also noticed a pattern:
- These flashes happen especially during cerebellum exercises—things like throwing and catching a ball, clapping, or brain-gym activities.
- They occur more strongly with fine motor exercises (using my hands and fingers) compared to gross motor ones.
It felt as if working on my balance and coordination was somehow unlocking hidden drawers in my memory.
Scientific Insights
For a long time, the cerebellum was thought to control only balance and coordination. But recent research reveals it plays a much larger role—it is also connected to:
- memory and learning (via links to the hippocampus),
- emotions and imagination (via connections to the limbic system),
- and attention and thought processes (via circuits with the prefrontal cortex).
This means cerebellum training doesn’t just affect the body—it can stimulate brain networks related to memory and self-reflection.
“The cerebellum’s contributions to human language, emotional regulation, attention control, cognition, and working memory, beyond its widely acknowledged role in motor functions, have garnered increasing attention in recent years.” Lyu, W., Thung, KH., Huynh, K.M. et al.
Another possible explanation is the Default Mode Network (DMN)—a brain network active during rest, daydreaming, and memory recall. Cerebellum activity may interact with the DMN during exercise, triggering random memories or dream fragments to appear in consciousness.
Fine motor work (like hand exercises) requires even more precise cerebellar processing. This might explain why my memories resurface more strongly when I train small muscles rather than large ones.
“The cerebellum has traditionally been seen primarily to coordinate voluntary movement, but evidence is accumulating that it may play a role in cognition and behavior as well.” Rapoport, M., van Reekum, R., & Mayberg, H. (2000)
You should also check cerebellum functinos map:
What It Means to Me
At first, I thought something was wrong. But now I see it differently: these sudden flashes of memory may be signs of neuroplasticity—my brain forming new connections after injury.
Far from being meaningless, these moments tell me my brain is still alive, dynamic, and capable of surprising reconnections. They are proof that healing is not only physical but also cognitive and emotional.
What once felt like a strange and random phenomenon now feels like a gift. Every time an old memory resurfaces, I see it as my brain’s way of reminding me: I am still here, still rewiring, still alive.
So if you experience something similar—don’t dismiss it. Sometimes the brain has its own mysterious ways of healing, and science is only just beginning to catch up.
Resources:
- King M, Hernandez-Castillo CR, Poldrack RA, Ivry RB, Diedrichsen J. Functional boundaries in the human cerebellum revealed by a multi-domain task battery. Nat Neurosci. 2019 Aug;22(8):1371-1378. doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0436-x. Epub 2019 Jul 8. PMID: 31285616; PMCID: PMC8312478.
- Lyu, W., Thung, KH., Huynh, K.M. et al. Functional development of the human cerebellum from birth to age five. Nat Commun 16, 6350 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-61465-y
- Rapoport, M., van Reekum, R., & Mayberg, H. (2000). The Role of the Cerebellum in Cognition and Behavior: A Selective Review. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 12(2), 193–198. https://doi.org/10.1176/jnp.12.2.193
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