7 ms·

The homunculus never made sense, but did anyone think it did? "As a student and later as a practitioner in the field, I had accepted the homunculus as unquesti

The homunculus never made sense, but did anyone think it did? "As a student and later as a practitioner in the field, I had accepted the homunculus as unquestioned fact. As a professor, I would dutifully teach students that the distorted figure represented a key aspect of brain organization." - Nico U.F. Dosenbach Again . . . did anyone think it made sense? At least Dosoanbach (did I spell that correctly?) gets 15 minutes of fame, but did it mean anything?

ad404b8a372f2b9 4y ago
It kinda made sense, even the modern diagram isn't so far off from the original. It was a crude model built with the tools available at the time, I've seen it referenced in research articles and this professor says it was taught in universities so presumably it was. He was also published in nature along with ~30 other people so I don't think it's about the 15 minutes of fame.
coldtea 4y ago
>The homunculus never made sense, but did anyone think it did? Most in the field? And most still do. So there's that.
Ensorceled 4y ago
> The homunculus never made sense, but did anyone think it did? Why doesn't it make sense? Seriously, it was so widely accepted by literally MILLIONS of people because it DOES make sense: clearly my hands are MUCH more dexterous and sensitive than my elbows, my mouth and lips more sensitive than my forehead and having more dedicated brain connections and brain matter explains this nicely. I first saw this image years ago in Psych 101, and many times since, and not ONCE did it occur to me that this "doesn't make sense".
etrautmann 4y ago
In what way did it not make sense? It's not a mechanistic explanation of motor control, but it is a description of specific scientific observations, like what part of the body you can evoke movement in by stimulating with an electrode in the brain. I'm not sure what "doesn't make sense" about that, aside from it not really explaining a specific theory of how movements are planned or controlled.

ad404b8a372f2b9 4y ago

It kinda made sense, even the modern diagram isn't so far off from the original. It was a crude model built with the tools available at the time, I've seen it referenced in research articles and this professor says it was taught in universities so presumably it was. He was also published in nature along with ~30 other people so I don't think it's about the 15 minutes of fame.

coldtea 4y ago

>The homunculus never made sense, but did anyone think it did? Most in the field? And most still do. So there's that.

Ensorceled 4y ago

> The homunculus never made sense, but did anyone think it did? Why doesn't it make sense? Seriously, it was so widely accepted by literally MILLIONS of people because it DOES make sense: clearly my hands are MUCH more dexterous and sensitive than my elbows, my mouth and lips more sensitive than my forehead and having more dedicated brain connections and brain matter explains this nicely. I first saw this image years ago in Psych 101, and many times since, and not ONCE did it occur to me that this "doesn't make sense".

etrautmann 4y ago

In what way did it not make sense? It's not a mechanistic explanation of motor control, but it is a description of specific scientific observations, like what part of the body you can evoke movement in by stimulating with an electrode in the brain. I'm not sure what "doesn't make sense" about that, aside from it not really explaining a specific theory of how movements are planned or controlled.