The Little Men Inside Your Head!

Ever heard about the little men living comfortably inside your brain? If not, there’s no need to worry. There isn’t an actual population of men going about their daily business in there. 

What I’m actually referring to is the Cortical homunculus. (Homunculus = little man in Latin). This is a part of your brain that’s neurological map can be depicted by little, and very strange looking, humans. 

Let’s meet the team.

As you can see, their proportions are a little different to a normal human. This is because larger parts of the homunculus are required for some parts of the body more than others. 

Take our hands for instance. They require a larger slot in the brain because they perceive much more detailed and precise information than some other parts of our body would. That’s why when we see that fluffy cushion at the supermarket, we rub our hand across it and not, say, our hip. 

Now, you may notice that in total there are 5 areas significantly larger in total. Our hands, mouth, nose, eyes and ears. These match up with our 5 senses, which is entirely how we perceive the world around us. 

The keen eyed ones of you may have also noticed a difference between the two. That’s because they actually show different parts of the brain. The one on the left is our sensory homunculus and the one on the right is our motor homunculus. Basically, they represent the part of the brain that takes information in and sends it out again.