Which parts of the body have the greatest amount of space dedicated to them in the primary somatosensory cortex? Why?

Video transcript

Hey, everyone. Let's take a look at this question together. The brain dedicates more space in the primary somatosensory cortex to the representation of the following body parts, except which is it? Answer choice. A the upper lip, answer choice B the eyes, answer choice C the hands or answer choice D the gums. Let's work this problem out together to try to figure out which of the following answer choices is the correct answer. So in order to solve this question, we have to recall which of the following body parts does the brain dedicate more space to in the primary somatosensory cortex for that larger representation? And we can recall that the representation of body parts in the somatosensory cortex is organized soma topically, meaning that the adjacent areas on the body are mapped to adjacent areas in the cortex and looking at the body parts. In our answer choices, we can identify that answer choice. A the upper lip B the eyes and see the hands all have a high density of censored receptors and are involved in intricate motor tasks or precise sensory discrimination. So they have a large representation and answer choice. D the gums have a smaller representation than the upper lip eyes and hands since they do not require the same level of fine motor control or sensory discrimination. So answer choice D the gums is the correct answer and all other answer choices are incorrect. Since the brain does not dedicate more space in the primary somatosensory cortex. For the representation of the gums, as the gums require smaller representation than the upper lip, eyes and hands. I hope you found this video to be helpful. Thank you and goodbye.