Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Homunculus and Me

Know what this is? (Aside from a bit scary?)
This is a sensory & motor homunculus. This is a representation of motor and sensory information and the connection to your body parts with scale showing use. You may notice the large hands, well that and the lips, tongue, and ears.
The hands are the part I want to talk (write) about. I'm completing my Midterm for Biological Basis of Behavior (BBoB) and I of course run into this image. I realize I obsess about my hands; what they can do, what they can't. It could be because almost every action involves them. Drinking my quad americano, typing now, basically everything. It's hard to come to grips with your limits on a daily basis and then go on to find new ones.
I don't remember what is was like to have hands that worked.
<--- I want to understand this terrifying picture. I know hands, my hands, are consistently moving and doing all the things I require of them(well mostly).

I can even analyze it and say that my hands are like a damaged brain, the underlying structures are all still there working as before but the movements are now choppy and less sophisticated. Like I'm working with out of date software or the evolutionary older parts of the brain. I'm still capable of most, if not all actions, but they will be done with pain, awkwardness, and or great trouble.

My hands, my greatest weakness and strength. Allow me introduce my 'wienie hand'...
Notice the background of my lecture notes on neural networks/systems :)

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