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can you be my collective memory for a minute, I remember the existence of a very satisfying engineering explanation for why the representation of various body
by monkeycantype 1y ago
can you be my collective memory for a minute, I remember the existence of a very satisfying engineering explanation for why the representation of various body parts needs to be flipped left/right in the brain that came down to the topology of the wiring, and explained why unflipped isn't feasible / or perhaps it was just less efficient, it was one of those 'mind explodes' moments, but now I can't recall the logic.
- bongodongobob 1y agoI always thought it was so if an organism takes head damage on one side, the limbs facing the danger will have a better chance to still work, giving it a better chance to fend whatever off and survive.
- topaz0 1y agoThat has the smell of an evolutionary just so story
- monkeycantype 1y agono there is a very specific reason, related to mapping the 2d surface of your body to a 2d mapping on your brain that allows the areas of your brain that process sensory input from your skin to be adjacent to the processing of the areas that are adjacent on the skin that only works with a flip, I can remember what that is, I only remember the tingle of understanding it at the time
- jacobsimon 1y agoCurious, let me know if you find anything about it! That does sort of explain why the brain areas would be locally flipped, but maybe doesn’t explain the global flip (right body -> left brain) that the original article is talking about.
- monkeycantype 1y agoI think it's the theory in the article linked just above by renewiltord
- dboreham 1y agoSort of like an optical projection? (objects projected through a convex lens onto a screen are reversed).
- Sharlin 1y agoThat would be an incredibly unlikely adaptation anyway, but this change occurred in vertebrates before they even had limbs.
- andrewflnr 1y agoI have a similar dim memory, but (at least according to this article) invertebrate bilaterians don't have that swap at all, so it can't be too strong a constraint.
- renewiltord 1y agoI recall this. The original idea is from decades ago but perhaps you read it in the Quanta article here https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-brains-connections-to-the-body-are-crisscrossed-20230419/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/why-the-brains-connections-to... or perhaps that will lead you to what you want.
- monkeycantype 1y agoAh! That's the thread, not the source I read but I beat if I read the referenced paper I get there , thank you
- ragazzina 1y agoAre you referring maybe to the "Visual map theory"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contralateral_brain#Visual_map_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contralateral_brain#Visual_map...
- monkeycantype 1y agoI wasn't but that's intriguing Thank you