What is the homunculus of Sensory Penfield and Motor

What is the homunculus of Sensory Penfield and Motor
Image: Feel The Brain

One day you start feeling bad and suddenly it is hard for you to make some movements that you used to executed without any problem. It may happen that you stop feeling pain, discomfort or sensitivity in some particular area of ​​the body such as the fingers, the face, arms, among others. Your daily activities are directly affected by these inconveniences. Maybe it happened to you at some point in life or has happened to someone known. Our body gives us signs that we must capture carefully to deal with them. There are some diseases such as epilepsy that influence brain performance. However, we currently have ways to study our brain to know how it works. ¿You want to know more about this? In this Psychology-online article, we will give you information about What is the homunculus of Sensory Penfield and Motor.

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  1. History of the Penfield homunculus
  2. Penfield homunculus function
  3. The two brain homunculos

History of the Penfield homunculus

Penfield's homunculus has its origin in the studies and developments made by the doctor Wilden Penfield About the graphic representations of the brain. This doctor was looking for ways to cure some neurological diseases such as epilepsy, among others.

During the year 1928, Dr. Penfield worked together with Otfrif Foerster in the creation of a method to study different areas of the brain. There were certain patients who had brain injuries caused by various diseases and/or accidents, so that electrodes were placed in different sectors of the head. Then, small electric shocks were sent to know if some areas of the cerebral cortex responded to these stimuli. This resulted in the final results that the doctors knew whether or not there were affected areas that could be removed.

¿Why is the study of the Penfield homunculus important? These studies allowed Penfield to prepare a Graphical representation of the brain which shows that there is a connection between different parts of the human body, body sensitivity and neurons that transport information that is dodified internally.

Image: Somatosphere

Penfield homunculus function

¿What does the homunculum represent? Penfield's homunculus gives us the possibility of accessing a body map in which both the motor area and the sensitive area of ​​the body are represented human. This graph is used by medical specialized in neuropsychiatry for the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases with a neurological base that can cause damage to different specific areas of the cerebral cortex. For this reason, the approach to this type of problem must be in charge of a health professional since the knowledge and experience it possesses enables it to indicate adequate treatment according to the patient's characteristics. It is important that we know that there are variables that influence clinical diagnosis such as age, sex, family history and pre -existing diseases of the patient, among others.

Next, we will see what Penfield Motor and Sensitive is the homunculus of Penfield.

Image: Somatosphere

The two brain homunculos

exist Two types of brain homunculos that we need to distinguish since they have different functions and characteristics from each other. Next, we will see the location of the Homunculo of Penfield Sensitive and Motor and we will describe the most important qualities of each of them:

What is the Motor Homunculus and where is it

The Motor Homunculus corresponds to the regulation and control of body movements. It is located In the center of the frontal cortex, which includes the frontal lobe of the brain. The Motor Homunculus receives and simultaneously sends sensory information used for the planning and execution of movements. The graphical representation of the motor homunculus includes several areas of the human body as The face, fingers of the hand and arms, among others. In addition, the functions of each of these parts of the body such as swallowing and flickering also appear. If we observe the graph of the Penfield Motor Homunculus, we can notice that there are some areas larger than others, beyond the real size of each sector. This is because the bigger the represented area, the more intense the neuronal connections and the greater space occupies within the cerebral cortex.

What is the sensory homunculus and where is it

The sensitive homunculus is the brain area in charge of Graph the sensitivity of the body to touch, pressure and pain that a person may experience. Its location consists of the Parietal lobe In the area that binds to the frontal lobe. This area sends and receives information largely through the thalamus, which is responsible for the integration of different sensations that are perceived. In this way, it is possible to obtain a variety of stimuli and decode them in the body thanks to the neuronal connections found in this area of ​​the brain.

In this article, you will find more information about the parts of the brain and their functions.

Image: Cajal Neurosciences

This article is merely informative, in psychology-online we have no power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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