Nov 03, 2019 15:00:00

A painter who is born but draws hands and feet has re-mapped the brain so that the toes can move freely

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As a result of investigating the painter's brain, who is born with no hands, draws a brush with his feet, and draws a picture, “ the brain is remapped so that the five fingers of the foot individually correspond to specific areas of the brain ” It has been reported that it turned out.

Organized Toe Maps in Extreme Foot Users: Cell Reports
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(19)31061-7

Brains of People Who Paint With Their Feet Show a Brilliant Neurological Adaptation
https://www.sciencealert.com/if-you-paint-with-your-feet-your-brain-ends-up-mapping-your-toes-as-fingers

The research team at University College London used fMRI to scan the brains of two painters who were born but had no hands, and compared them with the results of 21 people who were born with both hands.

As a result, it became clear that the brains of painters who were born but lacking their hands were individually connected to the five fingers of the foot. A painter who is born but has no hands was able to perform a task that is normally impossible in the human brain, “moving five fingers freely like a hand”. It was also found that painters who were born and had no hands were not good at moving their toes in small increments compared to the control group, but had better perception of the toes.

`` Most people control the fingers of the hand with a small part of the brain, but the toes are individually controlled within the brain, '' said University College London neuroscientist Dern Wesselink. ”But in non-human primates who always use their toes, both the fingers and toes can be clearly distinguished and controlled in the brain.” .

In the image below, the upper figure shows the correspondence between the toes and brains of a painter who has no hands. Normally, there is no corresponding part as shown in the figure below, but in the brain of a painter who is born but has no hand, a small part corresponds to each of the five toes of the foot individually.

The brain area corresponding to the five toes of the foot was normally the same area that controlled the movement of the hand. This can be said to support the theory that the research team has long advocated: “The region that controls the brain's hand can support some kind of disability”.

The research team said, “Everyone may be able to remap the brain, but most of us don't need to remap the brain.”