Everyday Systems: nosdiet: message 2160 of 3212

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Hi folks :)
Here's a link which I hope works better than the link I posted about 
the Fast Food art exhibit in Lyons... Which didn't work.

This is a somatosensory "map" of the motor cortex called
the Homunculus, or "little man"
You can see that our sensory neurons are distributed with the 
advantage clearly given to our lips, and fingers... Our bums get 
a "bum" rap... butt, oops I mean, but if it were any other way, 

think how painful it would be to fall on them!
And then, if you consider that we usually don't need to use our butt 
cheeks to, say, open jars, write letters, and we don't check the 
food temperature with our butts either, maybe it's ok that our 
fingers and mouths got most of the nerves....
Did you ever notice how babies "eat" everything they can pick up? 

Well that's how they "sense" the world, since they can feel stuff 

best with their mouths.

Check out the Homunculus link, which may explain why I 
couldn't "sense the remote" under my big bottom, with such a teeny 

tiny section of somatocortex devoted to it.... Hope this works! :)
Love,
"Professor Deb" :)
Class is dismissed!
http://www.macalester.edu/~psych/whathap/UBNRP/Phantom/homunculus.htm
l