Stanford study upends decades-old map of how the brain controls movement

“Upends” is a strong word for “a bit more interconnected than we thought.”

It looks like the previous model is still broadly correct—there are just more signal crossings than initially accounted for.

Which, like… yeah. No shit.

This is good progress on understanding the brain. It isn’t disproving phlogiston or anything, though.

In each and every region the researchers looked at, Deo said, “there was distinguishable information about movements that span the entire body, not just the canonical body part the motor homunculus model would have suggested.” In other words, while one region might be most strongly activated for hand movements, it also contains signals concerning movements in the face, legs, and everywhere else.

Seems like that could go a long way towards explaining synesthesia as well.

I’m going to have to bookmark this one so I can link it the next time some STEMbro starts lecturing me about whatever it is that he thinks science has “proved” about consciousness or perception or free will/determinism or…

So, how far away are we from corpos taking control of our bodies?