Cerebral Structure and Function: BRAINCHECK

CURRENT CONTENTS:

Hippocampus

Visual cortex

Motor homunculus

Hemianopsia (3 verses, a 'brief saga')

More to follow

Authors' Note:  The homunculi (Latin for 'little men') referred to here are the representations of the human body, well-known to anatomy students, that are mapped out on the "motor strip", symmetric areas of cortex on both sides of the brain that control voluntary movement on the contralateral side of the body. The motor homunculus on each side maps the primary motor cortex, located in the precentral gyrus (fold) of the frontal lobe; analogously, there is a similarly arranged sensory homunculus located nearby in the postcentral gyrus.

Authors' Note:   Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918) was a German neurologist famous for his definition of 52 cerebral cortical areas based on their histological (tissue-architecture) characteristics. Functional correlates were defined for many of these areas, and the primary and subsidiary areas of visual interpretation are often described by their Brodmann numbers. 

   The primary visual cortex, straddling the calcarine (Latin for spur), sulcus (fissure or slit), is located on the inner surface of each cerebral hemisphere's occipital lobe, well protected from injury.

(Note that the four verses of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"). Click HERE.

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 160 of these!) on medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts. 

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume daily titillations on our related blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2023, there are over 1200 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.) The 'Daily' format has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.