Using brain scans , neuroscientists from Emory University have revised a decades - old map of the homunculus — a optic histrionics of the chief motor cortex and how it corresponds to corporal awareness and control .
Back in the 1940s and 50s , Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield developed the iconic motor homunculus , a distorted representation of the human body within the brainiac . Penfield and his squad create the map by stimulating the brain with electricity in patient undergo epilepsy surgery . From left to right hand , his resulting visual image showed toe and groundwork extend to the body ’s trunk , then to a very large hand fit out with a peculiarly salient thumb , followed by the head teacher , face , and a swing spit beneath it all .
The new newspaper , release in the Journal of Neuroscience , shows that Penfield had it mostly right , redeem for the emplacement of neck muscle restraint . Using operative magnetic ringing imagery , a team led by Buz Jinnah from Emory University ’s School of Medicine has shown that the cervix ’s motor control region in the brain is actually situate between the shoulder and trunk , as controvert to Penfield ’s positioning in a region between areas that control the fingers and face . The new positioning more closely aligns the system of the body itself .
“ We ca n’t be that hard on Penfield , because the bit of display case where he was able to consider head drive was quite limited , and studying head motion as he did , by apply an electrode at once to the brainiac , creates some challenge , ” remark Jinnah in astatement .
The team collected the fMRI data while volunteers were asked to do various isometric muscle contractions . To prevent the participants from being able to move their heads ( which would ruin the brain scans ) , their heads were restricted by foam padding and trammel straps .
In improver to create a more precise mannikin function , these findings could help in the written report of movement disorders affecting the head and cervix , including head earth tremor and cervical dystonia .
Read the full study atThe Journal of Neuroscience : “ Neural Substrates for Head movement in humankind : A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study ” .
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