Body
Body maps, Touch maps and our embodied self
The body-map is one’s self-representation in one’s own brain. Body maps are created by the brain, using touch, to spell out the brain’s experience of the body and the space around it.
Try this exercise : Imagine your body divided into a left half and a right half. Now, with your eyes shut, using your left hand, pat different parts of your body on the right side – arms, shoulder, cheek, hip, thigh, knee, and foot. With your left hand, trace your right eyebrow and right portions of your upper and lower lips.
How does it work? You are able to tell these body parts from one another because of body maps in your left-brain that specializes in touch. The same thing goes for the left side of your body: All left body parts are mapped in a similar region of your right brain.
Your brain maintains a complete map of your body’s surface, with neuronal patches devoted to each finger, hand, cheek, lip, eyebrow, shoulder, hip, knee, and all the rest.
The body-schema / body-maps represents both position and configuration of the body as a 3-dimensional object in space. The body schema is not represented wholly in a single region of the brain. For example, different regions of the brain code the schema for feet, the hands, while the fingers are represented in a separate part of brain.
The constant activity of your body maps is so seamless, so automatic